Thermodynamics and kinetics of dissolutive wetting of Si by liquid Cu

Abstract Wetting of Si single crystals by pure copper has been studied using the dispensed drop technique under high vacuum at 1100 °C. At this temperature copper dissolved large quantities of Si during spreading. CuSi droplets presaturated in silicon were also used to obtain non-reactive spreading. From the results obtained the different contributions to “dissolutive wetting” were determined. Moreover, a simple analytical model was formulated for analysing the influence on wetting of the interfacial atomic processes and of Si transport in the liquid. It is seen that, under our experimental conditions, solute transport by Marangoni convection controls the spreading kinetics.