Low Temperature Metal Induced Crystallization of Amorphous Silicon by Nano-Gold-Particles

Abstract

We evaluated a new process for low-temperature metal-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si) films by nano-gold-particles. Amorphous silicon film (300 nm) was coated by nano-gold-particles with a density of 109 cm-2 and subsequently annealed in Ar atmosphere. The a-Si film was nearly crystallized at 400 °C for 1 h, identified by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD). The crystallization temperature was low enough due to the high activity of the nano-gold-particles. The mobility of fabricated polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) film was about 10–20 cm2/(V·s), which satisfies the requirements for application in thin film transistors (TFTs) or solar cells.