Solid-Phase Crystallization of Amorphous Si0.7Ge0.3/Si and Si/Si0.7Ge0.3 Bilayer Films on SiO2

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Abstract
We have investigated the solid phase crystallization of a-(Si/Si0.7Ge0.3) and a-(Si0.7Ge0.3/Si) bilayer films deposited on SiO2 for an annealing temperature of 550 °C. It was found that, in case of a-(Si0.7Ge0 3/Si), nucleation of crystalline phases occurred at the free surface, while in a-(Si/Si0.7Ge0.3) crystalline phase nucleated at Si0.7Ge0.3/SiO2 interface. The crystallization rate of an a-(Si0.7Ge0.3/Si) is much slower than that of an a-(Si/Si0.7Ge0.3) films. After full crystallization, poly-(Si0.7Ge0.3/Si) has many equiaxed grains and the defect density of the upper Si0.7Ge0.3 was much lower than that of lower Si0.7 Ge0.3 in a poly-(Si/Si0.7Ge0.3) film whose grain morphology was elliptical. The average grain size of poly-(Si0.7Ge0.3/Si) was ˜7 μm and this film had strong (111) preferential orientation, while poly-(Si/Si0.7Ge0.3) had weak (311) or random oriented grains with the average size of˜0.3 μm.