Nature of grain boundaries in laser crystallized polycrystalline silicon thin films

The grain boundary populations in laser crystallized polycrystalline silico n thin films are determined by electron microscope analysis, using electron backscattering contrast in the scanning electron microscope, and convergen t beam electron diffraction in the transmission electron microscope. The gr ain boundary populations of the grains larger than 0.5 mum are dominated by first and second order twin boundaries. This result is found to be a gener al feature of laser crystallization independent of the experimental details of the laser crystallization process. Texture analysis of the laser crysta llized poly-Si films shows that under certain experimental conditions a {11 1}-preferential orientation of the grains perpendicular to the substrate ca n be obtained. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.