Polycrystalline silicon thin film made by metal-induced crystallization

This paper investigates the crystallization of amorphous Si by using Al below eutectic temperature as a function of temperature on glass substrate. The crystalline structure from Raman spectroscopy represents amorphous phase of films perfectly changed to polycrystalline phase at the 450 degreesC. The ratio of crystalline volume fraction was observed to increase from 48.63% to 68.28% as the time increases from 1 to 40 min. Crystalline structure was preferentially grown along the <111> orientation with the increase in time duration above the temperature of 450 degreesC. Also, the sheet resistance decreases with the increase of crystallinity because many Al contents are expensed due to the crystallization process. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.