Light induced crystallization of an amorphous silicon film embedded between silicon oxide layers

An amorphous Si (a-Si) film, 60nm thick, embedded between SiO2 layers and deposited on quartz substrate was crystallized in the regime of light-induced solid-phase crystallization (LISPC). The high quality of the film after LISPC was proved by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), by Raman spectroscopy (RS) measurements, and by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). The crystallized film consisted of fully crystalline grains with lateral sizes of 200-600nm. Only a few stacking faults and/or dislocations were detected inside these grains. Besides the large grains, regions with fully crystalline material containing a higher density of lattice defects were also observed. An intermixing of phases, i.e., SiO2 or a-Si clusters inside the crystallized Si film and/or Si-clysters inside the SiO2 layers, was not detected. (C) 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim