Excimer laser and rapid thermal annealing stimulation of solid-phase nucleation and crystallization in amorphous silicon films on glass substrates

The solid-phase crystallization process in thin amorphous silicon films on glass substrates was studied with application of excimer laser annealing (ELA) and rapid thermal annealing (RTA) for stimulation of nucleation. Use of ELA allowed us to create homogeneous polycrystalline silicon films on glass with grain sizes up to 3 mu m at temperatures below 550 degrees C. Use of RTA reduced the incubation time of nucleation from 100 to 6 h. The textured silicon films on glass with predominant orientation (110) and sizes of textured areas up to 30 mu m were manufactured using excimer laser stimulation of nucleation. The influence of the mechanical stress mechanism on grain orientation was suggested, and it was theoretically shown that internal stresses retard the nucleation process. The addition of deformation to the chemical potential difference was estimated for nucleation in amorphous silicon as 11.4 meV per nucleated atom.