Nature of grain boundaries in laser crystallized polycrystalline silicon thin films

The grain boundary populations in laser crystallized polycrystalline silicon thin films are determined by electron microscope analysis, using electron backscattering contrast in the scanning electron microscope, and convergent beam electron diffraction in the transmission electron microscope. The grain boundary populations of the grains larger than 0.5 mum are dominated by first and second order twin boundaries. This result is found to be a general feature of laser crystallization independent of the experimental details of the laser crystallization process. Texture analysis of the laser crystallized poly-Si films shows that under certain experimental conditions a {111}-preferential orientation of the grains perpendicular to the substrate can be obtained. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.