Excimer laser induced crystallization of amorphous silicon on flexible polymer substrates

Laser crystn. of a-Si:H on PES, PET and AryLite polymer substrates is reported. For each material, the glass transition temp. Tg and the coeff. of thermal expansion were evaluated, to det. the optimum deposition and crystn. processes conditions. 1000-.ANG. Thick intrinsic amorphous Si films were deposited on the substrates by Plasma Enhanced Chem. Vapor Deposition at 120-250„a. Dehydrogenation and crystn. were obtained by high energy (10 J) XeCl pulsed excimer laser. The irradn. conditions were varied to study their influence on the elec. and optical properties of crystd. material. Structural characterization was performed by x-ray Diffraction. Increasing the radiation energy densities up to 220 mJ/cm2 crystallites sizes up to 750 .ANG. were obtained