Nanocrystalline silicon films prepared by laser-induced crystallization
Peng Ying-Caia, Fu Guang-Shengb, Yu Weib, Li She-Qiangb, Hou Hai-Hongb, Han Lib
a College of Electronic and Informational Engineering, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China; b College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
Abstract The excimer laser-induced crystallization technique has been
used to investigate the preparation of nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si)
from amorphous silicon ($\al$-Si) thin films on silicon or glass
substrates. The $\al$-Si films without hydrogen grown by pulsed-laser
deposition are chosen as precursor to avoid the
problem of hydrogen effluence during annealing. Analyses
have been performed by scanning electron microscopy, atomic
force microscopy, Raman scattering spectroscopy and high-resolution
transmission--electron microscopy. Experimental results show
that silicon nanocrystals can be formed through laser annealing.
The growth characters of nc-Si are strongly dependent on the laser
energy density. It is shown that the volume of the molten silicon
predominates essentially the grain size of nc-Si, and the surface
tension of the crystallized silicon is responsible for the mechanism of nc-Si growth.
Received: 21 June 2002
Revised: 12 September 2002
Published: 20 January 2003
Fund: Project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (Grant No 500084).
Cite this article:
Fu Guang-Sheng, Yu Wei, Li She-Qiang, Hou Hai-Hong, Peng Ying-Cai, Han Li Nanocrystalline silicon films prepared by laser-induced crystallization 2003 Chin. Phys. 12 75
