Computational modeling of solid-state reactions in the Ni-Si systems induced by pulsed lasers (Q1917874)

The authors develop a mathematical model describing a pulsed laser-induced solid state chemical reaction in thin metal film-semiconductor systems. Following experimental evidence, the chemical reactions are supposed to be driven by diffusion effects. In accord with the usual experimental conditions in pulsed-laser irradiation of thin films, the problem is treated in one space dimension. The mass, momentum, and energy balances are formulated under the assumption that the convective transfer and the cross effects are negligible. This leads to a system of partial differential equations for heat conduction and species diffusion coupled through the heat-source/sink term due to chemical reactions and the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficients. Numerical solution of the mathematical model is performed using the finite element method. Computational implementation of the model is discussed and typical results of numerical experiments are presented.