Aluminum-Induced Crystallization of PECVD Amorphous Silicon at 120°C

Abstract

We studied the effects of deposition power density and thickness of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited (PECVD) amorphous Si (a-Si) on the microstructural evolution and activation energies of aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC). We found that a lower deposition power density and higher a-Si thickness yielded a lower activation energy and faster reaction, which in turn provided a lower AIC reaction temperature. By using scanning and transmission electron microscopy to examine the AIC microstructures and crystallinity we found that high-quality AIC polysilicon thin films consisting of submicrometer-scale Si crystallites could be achieved at temperatures as low as 120°C.