Moisture-influenced nonlocal photothermoelastic response of semiconductor rectangular plates with memory effects

This paper presents a theoretical framework to examine the photothermoelastic response of a semiconductor rectangular plate subjected simultaneously to moisture diffusion and nonlocal elastic interactions. The model incorporates three interacting mechanisms: mass transfer arising from moisture penetration, elastic deformation governed by nonlocal stress theory, and thermal excitation induced by photon absorption. To account for microscale interactions, coupled thermoelastic–diffusion equations are formulated within a spatially nonlocal framework. Analytical solutions for temperature, displacement, and stress fields are derived using Laplace transformation, with Zakian’s numerical inversion applied to obtain accurate time-domain results. A dual-phase-lag, nonsimple photothermoelastic diffusion model is introduced, employing a memory-dependent heat conduction law together with Eringen’s nonlocal continuum theory. Parametric investigations demonstrate that moisture concentration and nonlocality exert a pronounced influence on the thermal response and stress distribution. Graphical evaluation of the numerical results confirms that memory and nonlocal effects are essential for precise characterization of thermoelastic–diffusion interactions, providing valuable insights into semiconductor nanostructure design and processing. The novelty of this study lies in integrating moisture diffusion, nonlocal elasticity, and memory-dependent heat conduction into a unified photothermoelastic–diffusion framework for semiconductor rectangular plates, extending recent developments in thermoelasticity and memory modeling to hygrothermoelastic semiconductor systems.