D. Toet et al., Laser crystallization and structural characterization of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films, J APPL PHYS, 85(11), 1999, pp. 7914-7918
The influence of hydrogen and film thickness on the excimer laser-induced c
rystallization of plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition-grown hydrogena
ted amorphous silicon thin films has been studied. Films with hydrogen conc
entrations varying from 1 to 10 at. % have been crystallized using short pu
lses from a XeCl excimer laser, at fluences sufficient to induce melting th
roughout the thickness of the films. Dehydrogenation prior to laser exposur
e was necessary only for films having initial hydrogen concentrations large
r than 5 at. %. The structural properties of the laser-crystallized materia
ls were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron
microscopy (TEM). The AFM measurements revealed that films requiring no deh
ydrogenation are smoother after laser crystallization than those requiring
laser dehydrogenation, and that the roughness of these films increases as a
function of film thickness, although it could be reduced by multiple laser
exposure. Smoother films (root-mean-square roughness similar to 4.1 nm) we
re obtained by melting only the near-surface region of the film after the i
nitial full melt exposure. TEM revealed that the laser-crystallized films c
onsist of grains with sizes that are comparable to the film thickness. (C)
1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)07811-1].