Abstract
60-µm-long grains were grown laterally in a 50-nm-thick Si layer on thermally grown oxide by a single shot irradiation of an excimer-laser-light pulse. The origin of such a marked (about 10 times) enlargement of grains can be found in a newly introduced photosensitive capping layer on the Si layer, which has been heated uniformly to extremely high temperatures by absorbing a fraction of excimer-laser-light and gradually transfers the stored heat to the Si layer after the laser irradiation, resulting in the extension of the liquid-phase duration of the Si layer. Ultrathinning the Si layer can effectively reduce the lateral heat loss along the highly heat-conductive, liquid or crystallized Si layer, and, in turn, extend the liquid-phase duration further. SiON and SiOC films are good candidates for the photosensitive capping layer, although SiOC is preferable since it can be etched by a buffered HF solution and has an appropriate light absorption coefficient for a broad band of laser-light-wavelengths.