Laser-Interference Crystallization of Amorphous Silicon: Applications and Properties

The generation of two-dimensional seed arrays with periods in the range 0.5 to 10 μm in a-Si layers of 100 to 400 nm thickness on glass, using three interfering beams from a pulsed Nd:YAG laser is described. The size of the seeds depends on the applied laser intensity and varies between 100 and 1000 nm. The seeds consist of small nc-Si grains of 30 to 50 nm diameter which govern the subsequent thermal or laser-stimulated growth of large crystallites. The seeded growth phenomena and the related structural properties of the μc-Si layers measured by transmission electron, scanning electron, and atomic force microscopy are discussed.