In situ spectromicroscopic study of nickel induced lateral crystallization of amorphous silicon thin film using SPESM

Low-Temperature Metal Induced Crystallization of Amorphous Silicon Using Nano-Nickel Particles

“…Metal induced crystallization (MIC) is an alternate technique to fabricate the poly-Si. For instance, the aluminum (Al) (2) , the copper (Cu) (3) , the aurum (Au) (4) , the silver (Ag) (5) , and the nickel (Ni) (1,(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11) were used to crystallize the a-Si film, respectively. Most importantly, the crystallization temperature needed in MIC is lower than that required in SPC.…”

Large-grained oriented polycrystalline silicon thin films prepared by nickel-silicide-induced crystallization

“…Several methods of preparation have been developed, like the direct deposition of poly-Si in a CVD reactor at high temperatures, using hydrogen and chlorosilanes as reactant gases [1,2], or the indirect deposition through a crystallization process from amorphous silicon. The latter is the appropriate method when the substrate requires a low-temperature process, like the glass substrates to be used for solar cells [3][4][5][6][7] or for large-area imagers based on thin-film transistors [8].…”

“…This MIC process overcomes the problems of ELA and SPC, and has been widely studied in connection to thinfilm transistors (TFTs) for crystal displays [13]. When the crystal growth is in the lateral direction from a Ni electrode, the process is called metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC) and it is possible to grow poly-Si at temperatures as low as 500 1C [3][4][5][6] unclear. Phosphorous is well known for its ability to getter transition metal elements, so it could trap a fraction of the NiSi 2 , retarding the lateral crystallization or favoring the growth of crystal needles in some directions [6,14].…”