Coincidence of the thermal melting points of crystalline and amorphous Si and coincidence of thresholds for pulsed beam annealing of crystalline and amorphous Si and GaAs

In spite of the excess enthalpy of amorphism, neither the normal thermal melting point of Si nor the threshold absorbed energy density for pulsed electron and pulsed laser beam annealing of Si and GaAs is significantly dependent on whether the sample is initially amorphous or crystalline. However, the duration of the period of high optical reflectivity and the magnitude of atomic diffusion during the annealing event are much enhanced near threshold if the sample is initially amorphous. Here these facts are explained in terms of conventional theory of covalent bonding and of the normal thermal melting process and in terms of the "Plasma Annealing" theory of pulsed beam annealing. © 1982.