CW-diode laser crystallization of sputtered amorphous silicon on glass, SiNx, and SiO2 intermediate layers

CW-diode laser crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si) deposited by sputtering or by electron beam evaporation onto different substrates (glass without or with SiN_x or SiO₂ intermediate layers) is investigated. The resulting grain sizes and orientations are characterized by electron backscatter diffraction, optical microscopy, and x-ray diffraction. We demonstrate that 200 nm thick sputtered a-Si layers can be crystallized on all of the used substrates to result in grains from 1 up to 100 μm in size, depending on the laser irradiation parameters (intensity, exposure time). Electron beam evaporated a-Si films can be crystallized only on sputtered SiN_x intermediate layers to result in grains of 100 μm in size. Similar crystallographic film properties follow from laser treatment if the product of laser peak intensity and square root of exposure time is kept constant, independent of the scan velocity used. A high fraction of preferred (100)-oriented silicon grains can only be observed for samples with crystallites less than 10 μm in size.