Crystallization of nanostructured silicon films deposited under a low-pressure argon-silane pulsed-glow discharge: Correlation with the plasma duration

In this work, we compare the thermal crystallization and the laser crystall ization of hydrogenated nanostructured silicon (ns-Si:H) films in relation with their deposition conditions. The samples are grown in a low-pressure p ulsed radio-frequency glow discharge of an argon-silane mixture. The laser crystallization shows a decrease of the crystallization threshold (E-cryst) and an increase of the induced crystalline fraction when the plasma durati on (T-on) used for the deposition increases. No correlation with T-on is ob served in the case of the thermal annealing, indicating that the modificati ons of the bulk structure of the film with T-on are not the main parameter in the determination of E-cryst. The role of the surface roughness in the l owering of the laser crystallization threshold is then emphasized. (C) 2001 American Vacuum Society. [DOI: 10.1116/1.1335836].