50 research outputs found
Grain-boundary grooving and agglomeration of alloy thin films with a slow-diffusing species
We present a general phase-field model for grain-boundary grooving and
agglomeration of polycrystalline alloy thin films. In particular, we study the
effects of slow-diffusing species on grooving rate. As the groove grows, the
slow species becomes concentrated near the groove tip so that further grooving
is limited by the rate at which it diffuses away from the tip. At early times
the dominant diffusion path is along the boundary, while at late times it is
parallel to the substrate. This change in path strongly affects the
time-dependence of grain boundary grooving and increases the time to
agglomeration. The present model provides a tool for agglomeration-resistant
thin film alloy design. keywords: phase-field, thermal grooving, diffusion,
kinetics, metal silicidesComment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Phase-field model for grain boundary grooving in multi-component thin films
Polycrystalline thin films can be unstable with respect to island formation
(agglomeration) through grooving where grain boundaries intersect the free
surface and/or thin film-substrate interface. We develop a phase-field model to
study the evolution of the phases, composition, microstructure and morphology
of such thin films. The phase-field model is quite general, describing
compounds and solid solution alloys with sufficient freedom to choose
solubilities, grain boundary and interface energies, and heats of segregation
to all interfaces. We present analytical results which describe the interface
profiles, with and without segregation, and confirm them using numerical
simulations. We demonstrate that the present model accurately reproduces the
theoretical grain boundary groove angles both at and far from equilibrium. As
an example, we apply the phase-field model to the special case of a Ni(Pt)Si
(Ni/Pt silicide) thin film on an initially flat silicon substrate.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Modelling Simulation Mater. Sci.
En
Reply to: Mobility overestimation in MoS transistors due to invasive voltage probes
In this reply, we include new experimental results and verify that the
observed non-linearity in rippled-MoS (leading to mobility kink) is an
intrinsic property of a disordered system, rather than contact effects
(invasive probes) or other device issues. Noting that Peng Wu's hypothesis is
based on a highly ordered ideal system, transfer curves are expected to be
linear, and the carrier density is assumed be constant. Wu's model is therefore
oversimplified for disordered systems and neglects carrier-density dependent
scattering physics. Thus, it is fundamentally incompatible with our
rippled-MoS, and leads to the wrong conclusion