Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
A novel method of locating Si thin-film grains by combining metal nano-imprint and excimer laser annealing (ELA) is demonstrated. Metal nano-imprint at the a-Si film surface is used for the purpose of creating Si crystal nuclei which act as the seed for the subsequent crystallization by using ELA. The annealing to form nuclei at imprinted sites was carried out at temperatures below 450oC. ELA using XeCl laser of the sample with capping SiOx film resulted in the formation of over 2.0 μm-sized Si crystal grains at controlled position. Electron back-scattering pattern (EBSP) analysis showed that about 75% of the boundaries inside the location-controlled grains were the coincidence site lattice boundaries.