Polycrystalline silicon obtained by gold metal induced crystallization

Abstract The aim of this paper is to study the role of gold (Au) induced crystallization on amorphous silicon (a-Si) films produced by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) at low process temperatures (550 °C) to allow the use of glass substrates. Concerning the crystallization process Au was deposited by e-beam thermal evaporation over the silicon (Si), using different metal thickness, from 5 to 100 A. The samples were then annealed at 450, 500 and 550 °C and the crystallization time was changed from 5 up to 30 h. The structure of the films was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) while electrical conductivity measurements were performed to obtain the electrical properties of the films produced, namely the activation energy ( E A ) and how it changes with the Au thickness used. The data achieved show that the increase of the metal layer thickness decreases the time needed to get full crystallization. However this leads to lower conduction activation energy ( E A ) meaning that there is also an increase of Au incorporation that leads to the production of doped films.