A comparison of polysilicon produced by excimer laser and furnace crystallisation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)

The authors report on the electronic properties of polysilicon produced by furnace and excimer laser crystallisation of undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). The degree of amorphisation and average grain size are determined by UV reflectivity and electron microscopy respectively. A maximum areal grain size of 0.4 mu m/sup 2/ is obtained for furnace crystallised polysilicon, a lower value of 0.1 mu m/sup 2/ is observed in excimer (ArF) laser crystallised polysilicon. Optical absorption, DC conductivity and transient photoconductivity (TPC) measurements are employed to investigate carrier transport mechanisms. These are found to exhibit many qualitative similarities to those observed in amorphous semiconductors. The authors present a brief overview of their main findings to date.<
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