Laser induced epitaxy of amorphous deposited silicon

We have grown high quality epitaxial Si films from amorphous deposited layers using pulsed and CW Nd:YAG lasers. Pulsed irradiation produced epitaxial growth by melting and resolidification. The regrowth is relatively insensitive to interfacial and incorporated impurities of C, O, and Ar. Gallium dopants in the amorhous film redistribute within the melt and are zone refined towards the surface during solidification. Gallium left within the regrown layer exceeds the maximum equilibrium solid solubility by an order of magnitude. Continuous wave irradiation can produce epitaxial regrowth in the solid phase providing that the silicon is deposited on an atomically clean substrate. No Ge dopant redistributed has been observed in this regime.