Theoretical study of the kinetics of grain nucleation in the aluminium-induced layer-exchange process

In this work, Si grain nucleation during the aluminium-induced layer-exchange (ALILE) process is studied theoretically. A combined kinetic and thermodynamic model is derived to describe the nucleation and initial growth of Si grains. In the framework of the model, the dependence of the radial distribution of grains and the silicon concentration in the Al are calculated as a function of annealing time. The suppression of Si grain nucleation and the transition to pure grain growth at a certain stage of the ALILE process is demonstrated in qualitative agreement with experimental results.