Electric-field effect on metal induced crystallization of amorphous silicon

• Published in: Thin solid films Vol. 451; no. Complete; pp. 320 - 323
• Main Authors: Ho Kim, Kyung, Young Kim, Ah, Jin Park, Seong, Chang Park, Kyu, Jang, Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 22.03.2004
• Subjects: Electric field strength; MIC; Ni diffusion; 78.66.Jg; 78.66.Li; Ni diffusion; MIC; 81.15.-Z; Electric field strength
• ISSN: 0040-6090; 1879-2731
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2003.11.057

Anomalous crystallization behavior has been found for metal induced crystallization (MIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si). The Ni density of ∼10 13 atoms/cm 2 was deposited uniformly over whole a-Si layer and then the 2nd Ni layer was selectively deposited onto the a-Si using a shadow mask with Ni density of ∼10 15 atoms/cm 2. The crystallization started at first in the high Ni density (approx. 10 15 atoms/cm 2) region as a result of MIC in an electric field and then the a-Si in low Ni density (approx. 10 13 atoms/cm 2) region was laterally crystallized. However, the lateral crystallization proceeded in radial direction from the high Ni density region, forming disk-like grains, even though a parallel bias-field was applied. Then, the crystallization speed increased with the electric field strength. The lateral crystallization speed showed an exponential relationship with the electric field as r=r oe αE with constant r o and α of 2.2×10 −2 cm/V. The dependence appears to be due to the reduction in the activation of Ni diffusion in an electric field.