Enhancement of interface stability in liquid phase electroepitaxy

The thermodynamic as well as the dynamic constitutional supercooling criteria are derived for liquid phase electroepitaxy (LPEE) taking into account the Peltier effect and electromigration which control the growth interface temperature and mass transport in the solution, respectively. It is shown that solute transport by electromigration enhances significantly the interface stability during growth. Thus the present treatment explains the experimentally attained stable electroepitaxial growth with velocities as high as 25 μm/min. Furthermore, it defines the geometry of the LPEE configuration and the growth parameters (current density and polarity, temperature and substrate characteristics) which lead to the optimization of surface morphology.