Silver-induced layer exchange for the low-temperature preparation of intrinsic polycrystalline silicon films

The preparation of large grained continuous polycrystalline silicon layers by metal-induced crystallization is reported. The macroscopic layer exchange of an amorphous silicon precursor layer in contact with a silver layer was observed for temperatures below the softening point of glass. This process is quite similar to the well-known aluminum-induced layer exchange. However, due to the use of silver as a catalyst, the recrystallized layers are electrically intrinsic rather than highly doped with Al acceptors. The resulting polycrystalline silicon layers show a good crystalline quality as deduced from Raman scattering, x-ray diffraction, and UV-reflectance measurements.