RF microplasma jet at atmospheric pressure: Application to rapid recrystallization of amorphous silicon

A novel rapid recrystallization technique for amorphous silicon (a-Si) utilizing an rf microplasma jet of argon at atmospheric pressure is presented. A highly crystallized polycrystalline silicon film (poly-Si) was synthesized uniformly by the rapid plasma annealing of a-Si films deposited on glass and aluminum plates by translating the substrate stage at 0.05-250 mm/s. Xray diffraction analysis, Raman scattering and I-V measurements demonstrated that 0.3-3-mu m-thick a-Si samples could be fully crystallized below several milliseconds. Film crystallinity is discussed in terms of the traveling velocity of the substrate stage, the flow rate of argon, and the thickness of as-deposited a-Si films.