Solid phase epitaxial regrowth of amorphous silicon is not affected by structural relaxation

Abstract

A piece of amorphous silicon made by self-ion implantation was structurally relaxed by thermal annealing at 650°C; subsequently, half of the sample was re-implanted to bring it back to a non-relaxed state. The sample was next submitted to a series of low-temperature anneals (425–435°C) in order to induce solid phase epitaxial crystallization and the growth rate was measured on both halves of the sample. No difference was found within an uncertainty of ±3%, which would imply that the activation energy for solid phase epitaxial regrowth remains constant to within 2 meV under structural relaxation.

Keywords:

• amorphous silicon
• structural relaxation
• solid phase epitaxial growth
• activation energy

Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to thank L. Godbout and X. Perraton for their expert support of the accelerators, and R. Leonelli and G. Bentoumi for assistance with the Raman measurements. This work was financially supported by FQRNT (Fonds québecois de la recherche sur la nature et la technologie) through the grant to the RQMP (Regroupement québecois sur les matériaux de pointe) and by NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada).