Cellular and dendritic morphologies on stationary and moving liquid-solid interfaces in zone-melting recrystallization

Abstract

It is well known that when Si films are radiatively heated there exists a range of incident intensities for which liquid and solid regions coexist at near uniform temperature. Based on in situ microscopic observation of solidification interface morphologies, we argue that this phenomenon is responsible, at least in part, for the morphology of the liquid-solid interface in zone-melting recrystallization. We demonstrate this effect through stationary interface experiments. It is observed that even a stationary interface exposed to a gradient in radiation intensity develops interface morphologies similar to those of moving interfaces.