Excimer-Laser-Induced Lateral-Growth of Silicon Thin-Films

Abstract

A new excimer-laser crystallization method called the “gradient method", has been developed for large-grain growth of Si thin-films on glass. The method is based on a spatial modulation of an incident light intensity, which triggers the lateral grain growth. Grains of size as large as 5 µm were grown by a single shot irradiation at a substrate temperature of 500°C. By combining a step motion of the sample and the proposed method, the grain could be enlarged drastically.