Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
A novel regime of crystal growth and segregation has been observed. Amorphous Si layers were uniformly doped with Au and epitaxial crystallization was induced in the temperature range 250–420°C using 2.5 MeV Ar ion irradiation. The Au segregation at the amorphous/crystal interface is analogous to behavior at liquid/solid interfaces except that the interfacial segregation coefficient of 0.007 at 320°C is independent of velocity between 0.6 and 6A/sec. This process results in the trapping of Au in crystalline Si at concentrations some ten orders of magnitude in excess of equilibrium concentration.