Nanosecond laser-induced crystallization of SiO x /Au bilayers in air and vacuum

High-quality polycrystalline silicon films on low-cost and low-temperature substrates have attracted much attention as promising materials for high-speed thin-film transistors and thin-film solar cells fabrication. To obtain poly-Si films on low temperature substrates, several concepts have been proposed. Usually the amorphous material undergoes crystallization which can be achieved by various methods including solid-phase crystallization, metal-induced crystallization or liquid-phase crystallization. In this work, we tried to combine the advantages of metal-induced crystallization and liquid-phase crystallization. To achieve this we explored the nanosecond laser crystallization of a bilayer structure consisting of Au and SiO0.1 layers with thicknesses of 30 nm and 130 nm, respectively. The study reveals that when exposed to 532 nm wavelength radiation leads to its destruction due to rupture. On the other hand, when subjected to 1064 nm wavelength radiation, no similar material behavior is observed, and the measured modification threshold is 0.15 J/cm 2 , representing a 40 % reduction compared to SiO0.1 film without gold. It is demonstrated that at laser fluences of 0.35 J/cm 2 and higher, the treated surface in air becomes enriched with silicon dioxide nanoporous coating, attributed to the return of evaporation products to the target surface. Theoretical modeling, assuming thermal evaporation of the coating, suggests that the undesirable nanoporous layer formation can be avoided.