Growth of large areas of grain boundary-free silicon-on-insulator

A technique combining a raster laser scan, selective annealing using patterned antireflection stripes and a seeding window has been successfully used to grow large single crystals of silicon-on-insulator. The raster-scanned laser spot simulates an advancing linear heat source and the anti-reflection stripes modulate the trailing edge in such a way that parasitic random nucleation is avoided. The seeding gives the film its crystal orientation.