Nickel Induced Lateral Crystallization of Amorphous Silicon Film by Electroless Planting

Abstract

A novel deposition way of nickel film for crystallization amorphous silicon film is introduced. Electroless nickel planting is a convenient and inexpensive way to deposit nickel without using the electric field or any large facility. A 200 nm nickel film is deposited on the glass substrates and then a 300nm a-Si film is deposited on the nickel film with a horizontal electric field assisted to enhance amorphous silicon crystallization. The bi-layer film is annealed at 500°C for several hours in the nitrogen atmosphere. The crystallized Si thin films were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, Field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The Raman demonstrates that the a-Si has been crystallized. Furthermore the FE-SEM shows the lateral crystalline morphology, the length of grain is up to 5µm and the EDS reveals the nickel distribution in the MILC and MIC area.