Enhancement of lateral solid phase epitaxial growth in evaporated amorphous Si films by phosphorus implantation

Abstract

Characteristics of lateral solid phase epitaxial (L-SPE) growth and random crystallization in amorphous Si films, which were deposited on (100) Si substrates with SiO2 patterns at elevated substrate temperature and amorphized by subsequent Si+ or P+ ion implantation, were investigated. It was found from Nomarski optical microscopy that phosphorus doping is effective to enhance the L-SPE growth rate and to reduce the random nucleation rate. Owing to these two effects, the maximum L-SPE length of about 24 μm was obtained in the film doped with 3×1020 P atoms/cm3 after 8-h annealing at 600 °C, which was about six times longer than that in the undoped films.