Characteristics of polycrystalline silicon thin films prepared by pulsed ion-beam evaporation

Using the intense pulsed ion-beam evaporation method, we have succeeded in preparing polycrystalline silicon thin films without impurities on substrates of silicon and quartz. High crystallinity and deposition rate were achieved without heating the substrate. Since the lifetime of the ablation plasma, which was obtained by a pulsed ion beam with 50-ns pulse width, is of the order of 20 mus, the instantaneous deposition rate is in the region of cm/s. The crystallinity of poly-Si film has been improved by increasing the density of the ablation plasma, whereby the grain size of the film was found to be smaller. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.