Heat Transfer and Phase Transformations in Laser Annealing of Thin a-Si Films

Author(s):  
Seung-Jae Moon ◽  
Minghong Lee ◽  
Costas P. Grigoropoulos

Abstract The liquid-solid interface motion and the temperature history of thin Si films during excimer laser annealing are observed by in situ experiments combining time-resolved (∼lns) thermal emission measurements, optical reflectance and transmittance at near-IR wavelengths and electrical conductance measurements. The spontaneous nucleation temperature in the supercooled liquid melt is studied from the thermal emission measurement A new double laser recrystallization technique using a temporally modulated CW Ar+ laser in conjunction with a superposed nanosecond laser pulse produces lateral grain growth at the irradiated spot. The laser melting process is numerically simulated. High-resolution laser flash photography enabled in-situ direct visualization of the resolidification process. The images reveal lateral solidification velocity of about 10 m/s.

1992 ◽  
Vol 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Iwata ◽  
Tomoyuki Nohda ◽  
Satoshi Ishida ◽  
Takashi Kuwahara ◽  
Keiichi Sano ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe grain size of phosphorous (P)-doped poly-Si film has been enlarged to about 5000 Å by controlling the solidification velocity of molten Si during ArF excimer laser annealing. The drastically enlarged grain has few defects inside the grain. It has been confirmed that control of the solidification velocity is effective for P-doped poly-Si similar to the case of non-doped poly-Si films. In addition, a sheet resistance of 80 Ω/□ (ρ = 4 × 10-4 Ω · cm) has been achieved for very thin (500 Å) films by recrystallizing PECVD P-doped a-Si films.


1999 ◽  
Vol 558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mutsuko Hatano ◽  
Seungjae Moon ◽  
Minghong Lee ◽  
Kenkichi Suzuki ◽  
Costas P. Grigoropoulos

ABSTRACTThe liquid-solid interface motion and the temperature history of thin Si films during excimer laser annealing are observed by in-situ experiments combining time-resolved (∼Ins) electrical conductance, optical reflectance/transmittance at visible and near-IR wavelength, and thermal emission measurements. The existence of partial and complete melting regimes is elucidated. In the partial melting regime, the maximum temperature remains close to the melting point of aSi, since the laser energy is consumed on the latent heat of phase-change. In the complete melting regime, substantial supercooling, followed by homogeneous nucleation is observed. These phase transformations are consistent with the recrystallized poly-Si morphologies.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 461-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.C. van der Wilt ◽  
M.G. Kane ◽  
A.B. Limanov ◽  
A.H. Firester ◽  
L. Goodman ◽  
...  

AbstractLow-defect-density polycrystalline Si on flexible substrates can be instrumental in realizing the full potential of macroelectronics. Direct deposition or solid-phase crystallization techniques are often incompatible with polymers and produce materials with high defect densities. Excimer-laser annealing is capable of producing films of reasonable quality directly on polymer and metallic substrates. Sequential lateral solidification (SLS) is an advanced pulsed-laser-crystallization technique capable of producing Si films on polymers with lower defect density than can be obtained via excimer-laser annealing. Circuits built directly on polymers using these SLS films show the highest performance reported to date.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (Part 1, No. 3B) ◽  
pp. 1614-1617
Author(s):  
Cheol-Min Park ◽  
Byung-Hyuk Min ◽  
Juhn-Suk Yoo ◽  
Hong-Seok Choi ◽  
Min-Koo Han

2006 ◽  
Vol 505-507 ◽  
pp. 277-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Ru Chen ◽  
Long Sun Chao

This paper is to investigate the effects on grain size of different working conditions for making poly Si films by using the excimer laser annealing method. In this research, a KrF excimer laser of 248 nm in wavelength is used to irradiate a-Si films of 0.1 μm in thickness on glass substrate to produce poly-Si ones. The control parameters are laser intensity (200~500 mJ/cm2), pulse number (1~10 shots) and coverage fraction (0~100%). Besides, the effect of a SiO2 layer is also studied, which is utilized as a heat-isolated zone located between the Si film and glass substrate. Average grain sizes from SEM photos are used to analyze the effects of these parameters. Purely from the heat transfer view, the Si film obtains more energy would have the slower cooling or solidification rate, which results in the larger grain. From the experimental results, if the melt pool is within the range of Si film or does not contact its neighboring layer (SiO2 layer or glass substrate), the more absorbed energy from the higher energy intensity, the larger pulse number or the bigger coverage fraction can have the larger average grain size. However, with large enough energy, the melt pool could go through the Si film and touch the lower layer. This would induce much more nuclei due to the homogeneous nucleation in the pool and the heterogeneous nucleation near the interface between the film and the neighboring layer. The resulting grain size is much smaller than that of the former one. The transition points of these two cases for different control parameters can be obtained from the experimental results in this study. When the energy from the laser is small, the SiO2 layer acts like a heat absorber and makes the grain size smaller than that of not having the SiO2 layer. On the other hand, when the energy is large, the SiO2 layer becomes a heat insulator and makes the grain size larger.


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