Lateral solid phase recrystallization from the crystal seed in Ge-ion-implanted amorphous silicon films by repetition rapid thermal annealing

Lateral solid-phase recrystallization (LSPR) from the crystal seed selectiv ely formed by excimer laser annealing in Ge-ion-implanted amorphous silicon (a-Si) is performed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The process is carri ed out as a basic research study to grow grains in the current direction al ong the channel from the drain to the source in poly-Si thin film transisto rs. In this letter,:it is shown that repetition RTA, in which on/off of the setting temperature is periodically repeated with a certain heat pulse wid th, suppresses the random nucleation in a-Si films and enlarges LSPR grains compared with single RTA, when the heat pulse width is sufficiently shorte r than the incubation time which is the time before the onset of nucleation .