Investigating the role of grain boundaries in interface reactions

Abstract

The paper is built around a nonexhaustive review of the literature on the role of grain boundaries in reactive phase formation. Examples are chosen to illustrate these effects in silicide and oxide growths, and later on in metal-metal interactions. A short section deals with the effect of grain boundaries and grain boundary adsorption of impurities on the kinetics of growth and on the morphology of the growing layer. Some attempts at understanding the mechanisms of phase growth from the tracking of isotopes are briefly analyzed.