NUCLEATION AND CRYSTALLIZATION CHARACTERISTICS OF PHOSPHORUS-DOPED AMORPHOUS-SILICON SLIT NANO-WIRE

Nucleation and crystallization characteristics of phosphorus-doped amo rphous silicon (a-Si) ''slit nano wire'' are studied, which is fabrica ted by conformal filling of a 100 nm wide trench by HLD (High temperat ure Low pressure chemical vapor Deposition) oxide, and measures about 10 nm in width and height. Nucleation rate and crystallization rate of the amorphous silicon layer, with a phosphorus doping concentration o f 1 x 10(20) cm-3 are measured for samples annealed between 525 and 56 0-degrees-C between 3 and 120 h. The number of nuclei and the length o f grains are observed by transmission electron microscopy with a magni fication between 32,000 and 4,000,000. The activation energies of nucl eation and crystallization are 1.15 and 1.53 eV, respectively, which a re about one quarter and one half those measured for a-Si layers forme d on flat SiO2. These characteristics are attributed largely to the ef fect of interaction of a-Si ''slit nano wire'' layers and the slit wal l surface.