GROWTH OF POLYCRYSTALLINE SILICON ON GLASS BY SELECTIVE LASER-INDUCEDNUCLEATION

Polycrystalline silicon on glass substrates was grown by a method base d on the creation of nucleation sites using laser crystallization of a morphous silicon followed by thermal annealing at temperatures below 6 00 degrees C. Annealing induces the crystallization of the material ar ound the seeds, eventually leading to coalescence of adjacent domains before spontaneous nucleation sets in. Micro-Raman spectroscopy shows that the seeds experience a tensile stress, which causes a radial bire fringence in the surrounding amorphous silicon, detected by optical an isotropy measurements. We conjecture that this stress facilitates the crystallization of the material around the seed upon thermal annealing . (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.