Investigation of the Crystallization of Amorphous Si by Imaging Ellipsometry

Abstract

We report results on a study of the formation of polycrystalline Si by thermally annealing amorphous Si films. The crystallization of amorphous Si is of increasing interest not only from a basic-physics point of view but also for its wide application in the semiconductor device area. The amorphous Si was deposited on a glass substrate coated with buffer layers and a small amount of Ni to stimulate crystallization. The process was followed with a spatial resolution of 3 microm using an imaging ellipsometer. Imaging ellipsometry constructs sample images from the differences in dielectric functions in different regions. In particular, we can easily detect the polycrystalline Si domains in an amorphous matrix. Results are shown as three-dimensional plots. These are then analyzed to show that the interfaces between domains are not abrupt, and that crystallization within the polycrystalline Si regions is not complete. The fundamental crystallization mechanism is the radial expansion of Ni-seeded needles, forming macroscopic disk-like domains.