Raman-microprobe study of stress and crystal orientation in laser-crystallized silicon

The spatial variation of stress and crystal orientation in laser-crystallized silicon-on-insulator films has been determined using the Raman-microprobe technique. The spatial resolution achieved is better than 1 μm. The phonon shift relative to unstressed silicon is in the range of -1.5 cm^-1 which corresponds to a tensile stress of 380 MPa and is in good agreement with theoretical analysis. Using a laser plasma line as an online reference, the peak position of the phonon signal has been measured with a resolution better than ±0.02 cm^-1. Our results also show a 4°-backward tilt of the crystal orientation along a crystallization path length of 90 μm. This has been determined using a new polarization sensitive intensity-monitoring method on cross-cut specimens which features an angular resolution of ±1°independent of surface roughness.