Investigation on Rapid Solid Phase Crystallization of Amorphous Silicon Films Induced by Micro-Thermal-Plasma Jet

摘要

Introduction: Solid phase crystallization (SPC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) films has been attracted much attention because of its widely application in semiconductor industry [1-2]. However, it is limited publications about the characteristics of SPC films formed at a high temperature and microsecond region. In this research, we will investigate the properties of SPC films fabricated by annealing a-Si films using a micro-thermal-plasma jet (µ-TPJ). Experiment:Experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a µ-TPJ to irradiate the samples and a high-speed camera (HSC) was set on the motion stage which moved linearly with sample in front of µ-TPJ with scanning speed ranging from 500 to 800 mm/s. The He-Ne laser was introduced to objective lens of HSC and focused on the a-Si film. The transient reflectivity of Si films during µ-TPJ irradiation was collected by a photodiode connected with a fast oscilloscope. Crystalline volume fraction was extracted from transient reflectivity by the time-resolved reflectivity method. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) was used to observe the grain size. A theoretical model was introduced to explain the kinetics of SPC in the microsecond regime.