Regensburg 2004 – scientific programme

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DS: Dünne Schichten

DS 22: Postersitzung

DS 22.49: Poster

Tuesday, March 9, 2004, 14:30–17:00, Poster B

Aluminum-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon: Al/a-Si-interface influence on seed layer formation — •Jens Schneider, Juliane Klein, Martin Muske, Stefan Gall, and Walther Fuhs — Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin, Kekuléstr. 5, D-12489 Berlin, Germany

Crystallization of seed layers on inexpensive foreign substrates and their subsequent epitaxial thickening is a promising approach for the formation of thin-film crystalline silicon cells. Such seed layers can be formed by Al-induced crystallization of an amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer. The kinetics of Al-induced crystallization of a-Si are studied by variation of the thickness of an Al-oxide layer between the initial Al and a-Si films. The results show that the thickness of this Al-oxide layer strongly determines the nucleation time and the number of Si-grains (nucleation) and has only little influence on the growth velocity of the grains. The diameter of the grains increases in good approximation linearly with time and is strongly influenced by the annealing temperature. The general behavior suggests that the process kinetics of the aluminum-induced layer exchange are determined by the silicon diffusion across the interface which can be altered by the thickness of the oxide layer.