The pulse thermal processing of nanocrystalline silicon thin-films

Abstract

Pulse thermal processing (PTP) has the capability of processing thin-fi lms and nanoparticles over broad areas utilizing high-density infrared plasma arc lamp technology. Heating rates reaching 600,000°C/s, which is orders of magnitude larger than current state-of-the-art rapid thermal annealing systems, are possible that allow controlled diffusion on the nanoscale. The ability to control heating at these levels permits processing thin-films and nanoparticles on temperature-sensitive substrates such as polymers. The PTP technique has been used to crystallize sputtered amorphous silicon thin-fi lms on sapphire substrates.

Thermal annealing of FePt thin films by millisecond plasma arc pulses

“…An intriguing question is if ordering can be initiated in the millisecond regime, can the detrimental grain growth be eliminated or significantly reduced. To date, there has been little to no reported experimental work to validate these predictions and explore this time-temperature regime [12]. The lack of experimental data is likely a result of limited techniques which can rapidly heat and cool specimens at these times and temperatures.…”

Process Parameters for Infrared Processing of FePt Nanoparticle Films

“…In general, for metals, these properties have a linear variation over the wavelength lamp spectrum. The following linear interpolation between the two sets of data are given as k 5 1:2503 1 3:3261 Ã l ðmmÞ [5] and n 5 0:9377 1 2:4946 Ã l ðmmÞ [6] for the extinction coefficient and refractive index, respectively. The relationship for the hemispherical spectral emissivity of bulk FePt was determined from the directional spectral emissivity of metals in air as e l ¼ 0:5 ð p=2 0 e l ðk,n,uÞ cos u sin u du [7] and by assuming that sin 2 u ,, n 2 1 k 2 .…”

“…This method is capable of processing large areas in a fraction of a second rather than minutes, the processing time that is typical of today's state-of-the-art rapid thermal processing. [5,6] This article emphasizes the experimental and computational steps that were taken for performing a process analysis of the PTP in order to compute the operating parameters such that the sample temperature would be limited within a given range. The nanoparticle film, approximately 150-nm thick, was deposited on a 600-mm-thick Si (100) wafer.…”

FePt L10 ordering and grain growth using millisecond pulse laser processing

“…This annealing is commonly accomplished by conventional tube furnace treatments for time scales of minutes to tens of minutes. There have been very limited studies in annealing FePt at much shorter times [4][5][6][7]. Recent timetemperature-transformation modeling predictions suggest that the shortest time scale for the ordering phase transformation commences in tens to hundreds of milliseconds from $ 500 to $900 1C [8,9].…”