UV—visible spectral characterization and density functional theory simulation analysis on laser-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon thin films

The effect of laser energy density on the crystallization of hydrogenated intrinsic amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films was studied both theoretically and experimentally. The thin films were irritated by a frequency-doubled (λ = 532 nm) Nd:YAG pulsed nanosecond laser. An effective density functional theory model was built to reveal the variation of bandgap energy influenced by thermal stress after laser irradiation. Experimental results establish correlation between the thermal stress and the shift of transverse optical peak in Raman spectroscopy and suggest that the relatively greater shift of the transverse optical (TO) peak can produce higher stress. The highest crystalline fraction (84.5%) is obtained in the optimized laser energy density (1000 mJ/cm2) with a considerable stress release. The absorption edge energy measured by the UV-visible spectra is in fairly good agreement with the bandgap energy in the density functional theory (DFT) simulation.