Physical model for the evaluation of solid-liquid interfacial tension in silicon

We proposed a simple lattice model to describe a solid-liquid interface of silicon based on experimental facts and molecular dynamics simulation results, and evaluated the relationship between the interface structure and the interfacial tension by comparing the model with experimental values. As a result, the entropy was found to give a major contribution to the interfacial tension, and it was revealed that the difference of entropy due to lattice disorder of bulk liquid and interface structure is the dominant factor of the entropy contribution. Moreover, the solid-liquid bond energy, which is crucial to estimate the contribution of the enthalpy, was successfully derived. The present model can be also applied to be the semiconductor material which has a diamond structure or a zinc blende structure.