Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Laser melting has been used to controllably vary the Si solidification velocity in the range 1–20 m/sec. The segregation of implanted impurities is found to be critically dependent on the liquid-solid interface velocity and substrate orientation for velocities <10 m/sec. This behavior can be understood in terms of different degrees of undercooling of the melt. While the (100) epitaxy is generally excellent up to velocities ∼10 m/sec, twins are observed for (111) epitaxy in the range ∼5–10 m/sec. Amorphous Si is produced from the melt for velocities in the vicinity of 20 m/sec. The amorphous phase forms at lower velocities on the (111) interface than on the (100) interface. These estimates of interface velocities come from heat flow calculations which do not include undercooling of the melt. Undercooling does not affect interface velocities ∼3 m/sec but significant lowering of the higher velocities could result from such effects.