Crystalline Grain Growth in the Lateral Direction for Silicon Thin Films by Electrical Current-Induced Joule Heating

Abstract

Large crystalline grain growth was demonstrated for 60-nm-thick silicon films using the electrical-current-induced joule heating method. Tapered electrodes were used in order to ensure distribution of the joule heating intensity in the lateral direction along the surface in silicon strips. Melting of silicon for 17 s caused by the joule heating resulted in the formation of 4-8-m-long crystalline grains. The change in the film thickness was at most 6 nm in the crystallized region. There was a tensile stress of 5:6 Â 10 8 Pa in the film. The heat flow simulation demonstrated that the solidification occurred in the lateral direction according to the temperature gradient and that the solid/liquid interface moved in the lateral direction at the velocity of about 1-2 m/s.

Ultrafast directional nickel-silicide-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon under high-density current stressing

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14] Joule heating was also used to grow poly-Si in a-Si films. [15][16][17][18][19][20] Although a-Si films can be rapidly heated and crystallized, either additional heating was needed or the a-Si was melted by the highpower input in this scheme. In this letter, we report combining the electric-current stressing with MIC to achieve the rapid crystallization of BF 2 ϩ -implanted a-Si layer without either melting or any additional thermal treatment.…”