Al-Induced Crystallization Growth of Si Films by Inductively Coupled Plasma Chemical Vapour Deposition

Polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) films are in situ grown on Al-coated glass substrates by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapour deposition at a temperature as low as 350°C. Compared to the traditional annealing crystallization of amorphous Si/Al-layer structures, no layer exchange is observed and the resultant poly-Si film is much thicker than Al layer. By analysing the depth profiles of the elemental composition, no remains of Al atoms are detected in Si layer within the limit (<0.01 at.%) of the used evaluations. It is indicated that the poly-Si material obtained by Al-induced crystallization growth has more potential applications than that prepared by annealing the amorphous Si/Al-layer structures.