Growth Conditions of Deposited Si Films in Solid Phase Epitaxy

Abstract

Rutherford backscattering and channeling techniques have been employed to study growth conditions in the solid phase epitaxy of amorphous Si films deposited onto (100)Si substrates and annealed in a furnace. It has been shown that the epitaxial growth is inhibited in a surface region of about 100 nm thickness for samples exposed to air just after deposition, and that the growth can be successfully achieve up to the surface if deposited samples have been heated prior to air-exposure at temperatures higher than 200°C in the vacuum chamber. These results indicate that interconnected voids through which gases percolate are decreased by in situ heat treatment. It has also been shown that the crystalline quality of the epitaxial layers weakly depends on the deposition rate of amorphous films and the annealing conditions in the furnace.