A molecular dynamics study of the growth rate of SiC crystal and its dependence on the temperature

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations of crystal growth of SiC in the reduced temperature range of 0.51–1.02 have been carried out. In particular, the relationship between the growth rate and the reduced temperature has been investigated by the simulations. The results show that the growth rate increases first with the temperature and then decreases dramatically after passing through a maximum. Calculations of the growth rate according to the Wilson–Frenkel model have been applied to the present system, with the required parameters of the activation energy for atomic diffusion and the free energy changes calculated by molecular dynamics simulations. The temperature dependence of the growth rate, calculated by molecular dynamics, agrees with the prediction of Wilson–Frenkel model, indicating that the crystal growth of SiC is a kind of diffusion limited growth.