Zone-defined growth of multicrystalline silicon film from metal-silicon solution

A new method to prepare multicrystalline silicon films from the metal-silic on solution was examined. In this method, control of nucleation is easier c ompared with that of the usual solution growth technique because the crysta l growth is limited to near the melting zone produced by the lamp heater fo cused on a metal-Si mixture. We successfully grew a continuous Si film as t hick as 120 mum on Al2O3 substrate at low temperature, using aluminum as th e solvent metal, without seeding nucleation site on the surface of the subs trate. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.