Induction Time for Nucleation in Amorphous Silicon Films Prepared by Plasma CVD

Abstract
The crystallization of plasma CVD amorphous Si films processed by isothermal annealing was studied by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The induction time for nucleation was defined as the period for which crystalline peaks do not appear. The temperature dependence of the induction time for nucleation was expressed by the activation-type relation with the negative activation energy. The results suggest a way to suppress the random nucleation in thermal annealing.