Some elastic effects in crystal growth
Résumé
These lectures deal with some elastic effects in crystal growth. We recall some basics results about the elastic description of a bulk solid and its surface, then we emphasize on surface stress and surface strain quantities and on the description of surface defects in terms of point forces. Then we focus on the morphological stability of a stressed surface and epitaxially strained crystal as well. We will show how surface stress modifies wetting conditions and how bulk stress modifies the equilibrium state. For 2D growth (perfect wetting) bulk strain modifies the chemical potential of each layer and due to finite size wetting we introduce, it results a number of equilibrium layers for each imposed undersaturation. For 3D growth (no perfect wetting) the epitaxial stress acts against wetting and leads to a global thickening of the equilibrium shape. We also show how elastic relaxation is a prerequisite for the simultaneous existence of 2D layers and 3D crystals (Stranski Krastanov or SK growth). In the three cases of 2D, 3D or SK mixed mode, beyond some critical size, plastic relaxation may occur. In a last part we consider elastic effects on growth mechanisms. We show that, except for Stranski Krastanov growth, the activation barrier for nucleation is not significantly influenced by strain. In contrast strain plays a role on the detachment rate of atoms (strain lowers the barrier to detachment of atoms from laterally large islands in respect to laterally small islands) and then on kinetics. Then we focus on strain effects on step flow growth and show how step-step and/or adatom-step elastic interactions may give birth to a supplementary net force on each adatom. This force modifies the net current of adatoms and thus leads to some new growth instabilities. The surface diffusion coefficient itself may also be modified by strain but without noticeable modification of growth mechanisms. At last we mention some collective effects. * Associé aux Universités Aix-Marseille II et III.
Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
---|
Loading...