Heating Layer of Diamond-Like Carbon Films Used for Crystallization of Silicon Films

Abstract

Rapid thermal crystallization of silicon films with a heating layer of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films is reported. DLC films 200 nm thick have an optical absorbance higher that 0.7 for wavelengths shorter than 1000 nm. They are also heat resistant to about 5000 K. A crystalline volume ratio of 0.85 is achieved for silicon films through heat diffusion from DLC heated by 30-ns-pulsed XeCl excimer laser irradiation at 200 mJ/cm2 for 100 nm DLC/5 nm SiO2/25 nm Si/quartz, while it is only 0.4 for 25 nm Si/quartz because of high reflection loss. Crystallization of silicon films is also achieved by 1064 nm YAG laser heating of the 200 nm DLC layer overlying the silicon films.