Crystallization of amorphous silicon films by photon-involved rapid thermal annealing

Polycrystalline silicon films with a preferential (2 2 0) orientation have been fabricated by annealing amorphous silicon films using a photon-involved rapid thermal annealing process. In contrast, conventional thermal annealing of the same amorphous silicon films results in crystallization at a preferential (1 1 1) orientation. This difference reveals direct photons interactions upon the silicon atoms, which results in preferential crystallization at the atom plane with the smallest atom densities on their projection plane, instead of the ones with the lowest energies at conventional thermal annealing.