MODIFICATION OF THIN-FILMS OF AMORPHOUS-SILICON BY RADIATION OF AN EXCIMER-LASER

This paper studies the crystallization of thin (0.03-0.23 mu m) films of amorphous hydrogenated silicon on glass and quartz substrates under the action of radiation pulses of an excimer KrF laser. We use the me thods of optical and transmission electron microscopy, optical linear reflection and transmission, and Raman spectroscopy to study the modif ication of films under the action of one or many overlapping laser pul ses. The existence of at least three crystallization regimes is reveal ed. The properties of the resulting polycrystalline films are investig ated in each regime. For various parameters of multipulse modification , we determine the intervals of laser pulse energies where a homogeneo us polycrystalline film is produced on the entire irradiated surface.