On the threshold for melting of silicon in the presence of a dense electron-hole plasma

Previous works estimate that the melting temperature of silicon decreases when the density of electron-hole pairs is caused to increase by means of an external agency, e.g. by laser or electron irradiation. Under these conditions, it is shown here that the energy required to attain the melting temperature may increase. Moreover, when the density of the carriers exceeds 10 21 cm -3 , the energy of the solid silicon at the melting temperature exceeds the energy required to melt the silicon at that temperature.