Nearly Perfect Polycrystalline, Large-Grained Silicon Arrays Formed at Low-Temperature Ambient by Local Pyrolysis

We report low-temperature ambient synthesis of high-quality, several micrometer thick polycrystalline silicon arrays on soda lime glass substrates by local pyrolysis, where SiH4 gas is locally decomposed near and condensed on the resistively heated microheater arrays with an average growth rate of 50 nm/s. The silicon arrays had nearly perfect crystallinity and a minimum grain size larger than 0.2 mu m, as determined by spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Boron-doped silicon arrays by the local pyrolysis was further fabricated to yield concentric p-i-n heterojunction arrays with rectifying current voltage or photovoltaic characteristics.