Poly-crystalline thin-film by aluminum induced crystallization on aluminum nitride substrate

Abstract

Thin-film polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) on foreign (non-silicon) substrates has been researched by various research groups for the production of photovoltaic cells. High quality pc-Si deposition on foreign substrates with superior optical properties is considered to be the main hurdle in cell fabrication. Metal induced crystallization (MIC) is one of the renowned techniques used to produce this quality of material. In the current study, an aluminum induced crystallization (AIC) method was adopted to produce pc-Si thin-film on aluminum nitride (AlN) substrate by a seed layer approach. Aluminum and a-Si layer were deposited using an e-beam evaporator. Various annealing conditions were used in order to investigate the AIC grown pc-Si seed layers for process optimization. The effect of thermal annealing on grain size, defects preferentially crystallographic orientation of the grains were analyzed. Surface morphology was studied using an optical microscope. Poly-silicon film with a crystallinity fraction between 95-100% and an FWHM between 5-6 cm−1 is achievable at low temperatures and for short time intervals. A grain size of about 10 micron can be obtained at a low deposition rate on an AIN substrate. Similarly, Focused ion beam (FIB) also showed that at 425 °C sample B and at 400 °C sample A were fully crystallized. The crystalline quality of pc-Si was evaluated using μ-Raman spectroscopy as a function of annealed conditions and Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) was used to determine the phase direction of the pc-Si layer. The current study implicates that a poly-silicon layer with good crystallographic orientation and crystallinity fraction is achievable on AIN substrate at low temperatures and short time frames.