Gold-Induced Crystallization of Thin Films of Amorphous Silicon Suboxide

• Published in: Technical physics letters Vol. 47; no. 10; pp. 726 - 729
• Main Authors: Lunev, N. A., Zamchiy, A. O., Baranov, E. A., Merkulova, I. E., Konstantinov, V. O., Korolkov, I. V., Maximovskiy, E. A., Volodin, V. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01-10-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amorphous silicon; Annealing; Classical and Continuum Physics; Crystallization; Gold; Photovoltaic cells; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Polysilicon; Silicides; Silicon; Substrates; Thin films; gold-induced crystallization; Raman scattering; polycrystalline silicon; silicon suboxide; thin films
• ISSN: 1063-7850; 1090-6533
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063785021070257

Gold-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon suboxide (
a
-SiO
x
) has been used for the first time to obtain polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si). It is established that the annealing of a substrate/thin gold film/thin
a
-SiO
0.2
film structure at 335°C leads to the formation of poly-Si in the lower layer (on the substrate), while gold diffuses to the upper layer. As the annealing temperature is increased to 370°C, the mechanism of poly-Si formation remains the same, but the rate of crystallization increases. Evidently, poly-Si formation proceeds via synthesis of gold silicides followed by their nearly complete decomposition to crystalline gold and silicon phases during 10-h annealing at 370°C.