A method to grow silicon crystallites on glass

Abstract

In our laboratory a method has been developed for low temperature growth of silicon on glass from metallic solutions [1]. This technique is based on creating pointlike nucleation centres using natural coalescence phenomena of the metallic solvent for masking the substrate. Thus, uncontrolled spontaneous nucleation can be avoided and locally defined selective growth of silicon crystallites seeded by the Si saturated metallic solution droplets occurs. The nucleation of silicon on the substrate surface and the growth of crystallites must be initiated and maintained by a steady temperature gradient. The material transport is governed by a vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism. As a first result of this artificial nucleus selection principle silicon crystallites have been grown in dimensions of 10 μm. Size and distribution of the solvent droplets as well as the morphology of the grown silicon crystallites have been characterized by SEM and optical microscopy. The crystallites show good adhesion on glass and are sufficiently regular arranged. The focused ion beam (FIB) method followed by X-ray microanalysis has been used to identify silicon crystallites still encapsulated by the solution.