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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
The ion beam induced growth of isolated silicon grains has been studied in chemical vapor deposited amorphous layers. The crystal radius increases linearly with the 1on dose and the growth rate depends in a complex way on the irradiation temperature in the 320 - 480 °C investigated temperature range. The grain density does not depend on the ion dose but it increases exponentially with increasing irradiation temperature. The grain density obtained after a pure thermal process on similar samples is In any case larger than the density appearing after ion irradiation. These facts may be explained by assuming that during ion irradiation only pre-existing seeds whose size is larger than a critical value can grow. This critical cluster size is larger than the critical cluster size for a pure thermal process.