Grain Nucleation and Growth on Amorphous Silicon

Surface diffusion on amorphous silicon was investigated via both simulations and experiments. Molecular dynamics simulations yielded diffusion Arrhenius parameters close to published experimental values. Diffusion occurs by short migration of atoms following the breaking of strained four-membered rings, in contrast to the long-lived adatoms that mediate diffusion on a crystalline surface. Experiments found that the gas-phase seeding of hemispherical crystalline grains on the amorphous silicon surface has high activation energies for both nucleation and grain growth. The effect of non-thermal illumination upon grain growth during annealing was also studied. However, a full investigation was not possible due to the limitations of the vacuum chamber conditions and also the fragility of many of our amorphous silicon films.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Dalton, Andrew Seth

Contributors dc:contributor

• Seebauer, Edmund G.

• Physics, Condensed Matter

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3198964

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/82375