Influence of laser fluence in ArF-excimer laser assisted crystallisation of a-SiGe:H films

Polycrystalline silicon germanium (poly-SiGe) coatings are drawing increasing attention as active layers in solar cells, bolometers and various microelectronic devices. As a consequence, alternative low-cost production techniques, capable to produce such alloys with uniform and controlled grain size, become more and more attractive. Excimer laser assisted crystallisation, already assessed in thin film transistor production, has proved to be a valuable "low-thermal budget" technique for the crystallisation of amorphous silicon. Main advantages are the high process quality and reproducibility as well as the possibility of tailoring the grain size in both, small selected regions and large areas. The feasibility of this technique for producing poly-SiGe films has been studied irradiating hydrogenated amorphous SiGe films with spatially uniform ArF-laser pulses of different fluences. Surface morphology, structure and chemical composition have been extensively characterised, demonstrating the need of using a "step-by-step" process and a careful adjustment of both, total number of shots and laser fluence at each "step" in order to diminish segregation effects and severe damages of the film surface and of segregation effects. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.