Electrical characterization of thin silicon films produced by metal-induced crystallization on insulating substrates by conductive AFM

Abstract

We applied conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (c-AFM) to characterize the electrical properties of low-temperature polycrystalline silicon. Current distribution and current-voltage characteristics are recorded using conductive-diamond covered AFM tip and low noise external amplifier. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and optical microscopy are used to determine the grain size, crystalline fraction and film thickness. The correlation between structural properties of the poly-Si fabricated with varied conditions and c-AFM results is revealed, which shows the potential of this technique as convenient method for evaluation of metal-induced-crystallized poly-Si quality.