Influence of electric field intensity on the copper catalyst-mediated crystallization of amorphous silicon

Abstract

The effects of electric field intensity on the crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si) using the field-aided lateral crystallization (FALC) process have been studied in the range of 0–180 V∕cm. The crystallization velocity increases as the electric field intensity increases. Moreover, the better quality of polycrystalline silicon resulted in the films that crystallized faster. The activation energy of the metal-induced lateral crystallization process calculated from the Arrhenius plot is 1.79 eV (±0.03 eV), whereas that of the FALC process is 1.65 eV (±0.04 eV) regardless of the electric field intensities. It is also shown that the electric field affects both the enhancement of the preexponential factor in the Arrhenius equation and the decrease in the energy barrier height for the crystallization. In particular, the effect is almost the same in the temperature range of 400–500 °C. The increase in the crystallization velocity is attributed to the field-enhanced diffusion of copper ions in the Cu3Si crystallization mediator and the amorphous Si.