Confined in-fiber solidification and structural control of silicon and silicon−germanium microparticles
Abstract
Water freezing into ice has a number of fascinating outcomes: Dendritic solidification of water results in beautiful snowflakes, a sealed bottle of beer shatters in a freezer, and ice covering salty oceans at the poles is salt-free due to compositional segregation. A silicon–germanium (SiGe) material system, ubiquitous in microelectronics, is surprisingly similar to water in its solidification behavior. Quenching of molten SiGe microdroplets sealed inside a glass fiber leads to dendritic morphology, with potential use in solar cells. Slow cooling induces compression of these spheres to tens of thousands of atmospheres, potentially changing the band structure of these materials. Moreover, slow solidification results in compositionally segregated SiGe Janus particles, useful for high-frequency microelectronic and nanorobotic applications.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 22, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1707778114
Entities
People
- Alexander Gumennik
- Ayman F Abouraddy
- Benjamin Grena
- Chong Hou
- Etgar C. Levy
- John D. Joannopoulos
- Michael Rein
- Yoel Fink
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Indiana University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- National Science Foundation
- University of Central Florida