Critical Laser Fluence Observed in (111) Texture, Grain Size and Mobility of Laser Crystallized Amorphous Silicon

1993 ◽  
Vol 297 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.I. Johnson ◽  
G.B. Anderson ◽  
J.B. Boyce ◽  
D.K. Fork ◽  
P. Mei ◽  
...  

This paper describes new results on the relationship between the grain size, mobility, and Si (111) x-ray peak intensity of laser crystallized amorphous silicon as a function of the laser fluence, shot density, substrate temperature, and film thickness. These observations include an unexpected narrow peak found in the silicon (111) x- ray peak intensity, which occurs at a specific laser fluence for a given film thickness and substrate temperature. Amorphous silicon materials processed at laser energy densities defined by this peak exhibit exceptionally large grain sizes and electron mobilities that cannot be obtained at any other energy and shot density combination above or below the energy at which the Si (111) x-ray peak intensity maximum occurs.

1994 ◽  
Vol 343 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. I. Johnson ◽  
G. B. Anderson ◽  
J. B. Boyce ◽  
D. K. Fork ◽  
P. Mei ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTLaser crystallized amorphous silicon thin films on quartz exhibit a peak in the grain size, electron mobility and the Si (111) x-ray intensity as a function of the laser fluence, substrate temperature, film thickness, and the number of laser shots per unit area. The peak in grain size has also been shown to be dependent: on the stability of the pulse-to-pulse laser energy density, particularly at high shot densities. The shape of the distribution profile of the pulse-to-pulse laser fluence can significantly alter the grain growth at higher shot densities. The modified growth can be expressed by a simple model based on the mean and standard deviation of the laser energy density relative to the characteristic fluence at which the grain size, mobility, and Si (111) x-ray intensities are maximized.


2013 ◽  
Vol 662 ◽  
pp. 413-416
Author(s):  
Yi Shen ◽  
Ruo He Yao

Al films were prepared by DC magnetron sputter deposition at different substrate temperatures. The sheet resistance of the films was measured by four point probe sheet resistance meter, and the film thickness, which was obtained by surface profiling system. The surface and cross-section morphology of the films was observed by AFM and FESEM. As a result, the resistivity of the films decreases obviously as the substrate temperature increases gradually. The higher substrate temperature is, the rougher the films surface is and the larger the grain size is.


1991 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Smith ◽  
Li-Chyong Chen ◽  
Mei-Chen Chuang

AbstractSystematic experiments have been carried out to characterize the yttria containing zirconia thin films on sapphire substrates by 248nm KrF excimer laser ablation. The deposition rate as a function of laser fluence and O2 pressure at room temperature was measured with a quartz crystal microbalance. The results show different threshold fluences for deposition in vacuum vs. oxygen. While the deposition rate increases with increasing fluence at a given oxygen pressure, the rate eventually saturates at a higher laser fluence. At a given fluence, the oxygen pressure dependence of the deposition rate shows a radical reduction when the O2 pressure increases from 10 mTorr to 1 Torr. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to obtain stoichiometric information. A very strong pressure dependence of the O/Zr ratio was observed. While the trend of increasing O/Zr and Zr/Y ratio with increasing O2 pressure is apparent, the correlations between O/Zr as well as Zr/Y ratio and other processing conditions are less obvious. RBS results indicate an increasing roughness at the interface between the ZrO2 film and the sapphire substrate as the oxygen pressure exceeds 50 mTorr. The structural information obtained from x-ray diffraction patterns indicates broadening of peak width with increasing laser fluence as well as decreasing substrate temperature. For the film deposited at a lower substrate temperature, a strong (002) texture was observed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maruf Hossain ◽  
Husam Abu-Safe ◽  
Marwan Barghouti ◽  
Hameed Naseem ◽  
William D. Brown

ABSTRACTThe effect of substrate temperature and interface oxide layer on aluminum induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) is investigated. The effect of substrate temperature on the AIC process was studied by changing the deposition temperate of a-Si from 200 to 300°C in a Al/a-Si/glass configuration. To study the effect of interface oxide on AIC, samples with a-Si/Al/glass, a-Si/Al-oxide/Al/glass, and Al/Si-oxide/a-Si/glass configurations were prepared at a fixed substrate temperature. The samples were annealed in the temperature range from 300°C to 525°C for different periods of time. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed the crystallization of the a-Si films in the various configurations. From the analysis, we report that crystallization of a-Si happen at 350°C annealing temperature in the Al/a-Si/glass configuration. However, with or without the presence of Si-oxide at the interface, crystallization saturated after annealing for 20 minutes at 400°C. On the other hand, when Al-oxide is present at the interface, higher annealing temperatures and longer annealing times are required to saturate the crystallization of a-Si. Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) mapping were used to study the surface morphology as well as the layer sequence after crystallization. This analysis revealed that Si-Al layer-exchange happens regardless of the deposited film configuration.


1991 ◽  
Vol 235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Smith ◽  
Li-Chyong Chen ◽  
Mei-Chen Chuang

ABSTRACTSystematic experiments have been carried out to characterize the yttria containing zirconia thin films on sapphire substrates by 248nm KrF excimer laser ablation. The deposition rate as a function of laser fluence and O2 pressure at room temperature was measured with a quartz crystal microbalance. The results show different threshold fluences for deposition in vacuum vs. oxygen. While the deposition rate increases with increasing fluence at a given oxygen pressure, the rate eventually saturates at a higher laser fluence. At a given fluence, the oxygen pressure dependence of the deposition rate shows a radical reduction when the O2 pressure increases from 10 mTorr to 1 Torr. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to obtain stoichiometric information. A very strong pressure dependence of the O/Zr ratio was observed. While the trend of increasing O/Zr and Zr/Y ratio with increasing O2 pressure is apparent, the correlations between O/Zr as well as Zr/Y ratio and other processing conditions are less obvious. RBS results indicate an increasing roughness at the interface between the ZrO2 film and the sapphire substrate as the oxygen pressure exceeds 50 mTorr. The structural information obtained from x-ray diffraction patterns indicates broadening of peak width with increasing laser fluence as well as decreasing substrate temperature. For the film deposited at a lower substrate temperature, a strong (002) texture was observed.


1991 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. I. Johnson ◽  
G. B. Anderson ◽  
S. E. Ready ◽  
J. B. Boyce

ABSTRACTLaser crystallization of a-Si thin films has been shown to produce materials with enhanced electrical properties and devices that are faster and capable of carrying higher currents. The quality of these polycrystalline films depends on a number of parameters such as laser energy density, shot density, substrate temperature, and the quality of the starting material. We find that the average grain size and transport properties of laser crystallized amorphous silicon films increase substantially with laser energy density, increase only slightly with laser shot density, and are unaffected by substrate temperatures of up to 400°C. The best films are those processed in vacuum but films of fair quality can also be obtained in air and nitrogen atmospheres.


2001 ◽  
Vol 672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen A. Dunn ◽  
Katharine Dovidenko ◽  
Anna W. Topol ◽  
Serge R. Oktyabrsky ◽  
Alain E. Kaloyeros

ABSTRACTZinc sulfide doped with manganese is extensively used for thin film electroluminescent device applications. In order to assess the key material and process challenges, ZnS:Mn layers were fabricated by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition in the 250°-500°C range on an AlTiO/InSnO/glass stack. The microstructure of the ZnS:Mn films was examined by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) as part of a larger study which fully characterizes these films by a variety of structural and chemical characterization techniques, including Rutherford Backscattering, Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction. For all the growth conditions, the films were found to be polycrystalline having predominantly 2H hexagonal ZnS structure. The ZnS grains are found to grow columnar as the film thickness increases, also widening in the direction parallel to the substrate surface and reaching the 100 - 200 nm average lateral size at the 650 nm film thickness. The presence of the 8H ZnS polytype was detected in the low-temperature ZnS:Mn films by TEM selected area electron diffraction and confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Dark field TEM imaging correlated this 8H ring with very small (∼2.5 nm) grains present throughout the low temperature film with a slightly higher density at the film/substrate interface. The 700°C post-deposition annealing was found to initiate a solid state transformation to the cubic (3C) ZnS crystal structure, and resulted in an average grain size of ∼250 nm at the surface of the annealed film.


2010 ◽  
Vol 44-47 ◽  
pp. 4151-4153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Min Jin ◽  
Ding Zhen Li ◽  
Lan Li Chen ◽  
Xiang Ju Han ◽  
Jing Xiao Lu

Amorphous silicon films prepared by PECVD on glass substrate has been crystallized by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at the same temperature for different time. From X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscope (SEM), it is found that the grain size is biggest crystallized at 720°C for 8 min, an average grain size of 28nm or so is obtained. The thin film is smoothly and perfect structure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 252 ◽  
pp. 02072
Author(s):  
Yang Yanbei ◽  
Tian Chunhui ◽  
Liu Shuang

As X-ray detection imaging has a wide range of applications in medicine, industry, public safety, etc., it is of great significance to study its imaging mechanism and improve its imaging performance. Based on the process of X-ray luminescence in the scintillator material, this paper established a simulation model using a microcrystalline column structure to investigate the relationship between the thickness of the detection film and the light conversion efficiency. With the help of the simulation tool MATLAB, the Monte Carlo method was used to simulate the light conversion process of X-ray in the film, and the results were obtained as follows. Under the condition of other parameters unchanged, the luminous efficiency reached the peak value with the increase of the film thickness, and then gradually decreased with the increase of film thickness. The reason why the conversion efficiency in the early stage increases with the increase of the film thickness is that the film is in a saturated state, and increasing the thickness can cause more X-ray particles to be converted. As the film thickness increases, more fluorescent photons are absorbed as they propagate in the film, resulting in a gradual decrease in conversion efficiency. Therefore, an appropriate film thickness can be selected based on the simulation results to obtain the ideal light conversion efficiency.


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