Surface-energy-driven secondary grain growth in ultrathin (<100 nm) films of silicon

Growth of grains with sizes many times (>50×) larger than the film thickness and with uniform (111) texture, has been achieved in ultrathin (<100 nm) films of Si on SiO2. Growth of these secondary grains is driven by minimization of anisotropic surface energy. As a result, the secondary grain growth rate increases with decreasing film thickness. The time required for growth of large secondary grains decreases with increasing temperature.