High-resolution transmission electron microscopy study of solid phase crystallized silicon thin films on SiO2: Crystal growth and defects formation

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy study of the solid phase crystallization of amorphous silicon thin films deposited on SiO2 at 520 °C by low pressure chemical vapor deposition and annealed at 550 °C in a dry N2 ambient was carried out so that the grain growth mechanism, various types of defects, and the origins of defect formation could be understood on an atomic level. Silicon crystallites formed at the initial stage of the crystallization had a circular shape and grains had a branched elliptical or a dendritic shape. Many twins, of which {111} coherent boundaries were parallel to the long axis of a grain, were observed in the interior of all the elongated grains. In addition to twins, the following defects were observed in the grain: intrinsic stacking faults, extrinsic stacking faults, perfect dislocations, extended screw dislocations, and Shockley partial dislocations. These <named-content xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:oasis="http://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table" content-type="sem:AIPTh1.2"...