Modeling and experimental analysis in excimer-laser crystallization of a-Si films

Abstract

In this work, the excimer-laser-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si) films was investigated numerically and experimentally. The basic structure is a silicon film on a glass substrate. Besides, the effect of an SiO 2 buffer layer located between them was also studied. In the microstructure analysis of the laser-irradiated area, the critical fluences (full-melt threshold, Fc) between the partial-melting and complete-melting regimes can be found from the grain size distribution varying with laser intensity. An efficient two-dimensional numerical model was developed to predict the critical fluences (Fc) and the transient distribution of temperature during the laser heating of a-Si films. The Fc's obtained from the simulation results of the proposed model agree fairly well with those from the experimental ones reported in the literature and acquired in this research.