Influence of doping concentration on Ni-induced lateral crystallization of amorphous silicon films

Nickel-metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC) was used to fabricate polycrystalline silicon thin films on glass substrates. Patterned Ni lines were formed on amorphous Si films by a lift-off process using photo resist. The samples were annealed in an N2 atmosphere in a furnace at temperatures ranging from 550°C to 600°C. Both the doping concentration of the Si films and the annealing temperature strongly affected the orientation of the crystals. A p-type poly-Si film with a boron concentration of 5×1019 cm−3 annealed at 550°C was found to be strongly oriented in the 〈2 2 0〉 direction.