Room temperature fabrication of poly-crystalline Si thin films via Al-induced crystallization under 500 keV Xe+ ion irradiation

Abstract

Poly-crystalline Si film is an important material for its applications in microelectronics and solar cells. In order to realize poly-crystalline Si for practical application with high performance, it needs to be fabricated at room temperature. In this paper, we present a novel technique to develop poly-crystalline Si thin films at room temperature using 500 keV Xe+ ion irradiation. Here, the Al-induced crystallization process is employed to reduce the crystallization temperature. For that, c-Al (50 nm)/a-Si (150 nm) bilayer thin films have been used for ion irradiation experiments. Structural studies show that crystallization of Si starts at a threshold fluence of 3 × 1015 ions cm−2, and crystallinity is found to increase with increasing ion fluence. The results are explained in terms of displacement spike and thermal spike due to the interaction of energetic ions with target atoms. The transport of ions in matter Monte Carlo computer simulation code has been used to estimate the number of displacements due to ion irradiation. Generation of a sufficient amount of free Si atoms at threshold fluence and diffusion of these free Si atoms along the Al grain boundary starts the nucleation process.