Preparation of silicon thin films by intense pulsed ion-beam evaporation method with low temperature process

Abstract

We have succeeded in preparing polycrystalline silicon thin films by the intense pulsed ion-beam evaporation method without impurities on substrates of silicon and quartz. Good crystallinity and high deposition rate were achieved without thermal processing such as heating the substrates. The crystallinity of poly-Si film has been improved by increasing the density of the ablation plasma. Since the lifetime of the ablation plasma, which was obtained by a pulsed ion beam with 50-ns pulse width, is of the order of 20 μs, the instantaneous deposition rate is in the region of cm/s. The crystallinity was increased by increasing the number of shots. The crystallization and the deposition rate of poly-Si thin films prepared on different substrate positions were investigated.