Metal induced lateral crystallization of amorphous silicon through a silicon nitride cap layer

Abstract

We studied a new method of Ni-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si) through a silicon-nitride (SiNx) cap layer. A 0.5 nm of Ni layer was deposited on the SiNx/a-Si layers and then this was annealed in a rapid thermal annealing system. The Ni diffused through the cap layer and formed the NiSi2 nuclei. Then, disk-shaped grains were grown from these nuclei. The grain size is between 20 and 90 μm, and the surface roughness of the poly-Si is 0.7 nm, which is smoother than that (0.96 nm) of the poly-Si without a cap layer.