Solid Phase Crystallization of Hot-Wire CVD Amorphous Silicon Films
Solid Phase Crystallization of Hot-Wire CVD Amorphous Silicon Films
Event Date: | March 28, 2005 |
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Authors: | D.L. Young, P. Stradins, E. Iwaniczko, B. To, B. Reedy, Y. Yan, H.M. Branz, J. Lohr, M. Alvarez, J.H. Booske, A. Marconnet, and Q. Wang |
Journal: | Materials Research Society Symposium |
Paper URL: | http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8008614 |
We measure times for complete solid phase crystallization (SPC) of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films that vary eight orders of magnitude, from a few ms to a few days. The time-to-crystallization activation energy is consistent with literature values of approximately 3.4 eV but the prefactor is markedly different for hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) films than for plasma-enhanced (PE) CVD films. The crystallized films were 0.3 – 2 μm thick, and deposited by high deposition rate (10-100 Å/s) HWCVD or standard PECVD onto glass substrates. We annealed these a-Si:H films over a wide temperature range (500 to 1100 °C) using techniques including simple hot-plates and tube furnaces, rapid thermal annealing by a tungsten-halogen lamp, and microwave electromagnetic heating at 2.45 GHz (magnetron) and 110 GHz (gyrotron).