Undercooling of bulk liquid silicon in an oxide flux

Abstract

Drops of molten silicon surrounded by a SiO2-BaO-CaO flux were undercooled at 350 K below their melting temperature. This undercooling is 75 K greater than the largest one reported so far for bulk silicon. To account for this result as well as the nucleation data from laser-melted thin films, classical nucleation theory requires a crystal-melt interfacial tension with a positive temperature coefficient. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.