Low temperature Si epitaxy on large grained polycrystalline seed layers by electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition

The epitaxial thickening of polycrystalline Si films on glass substrates is of great interest for the realization of crystalline Si thin film solar cells and other large area thin film devices. In this paper we report on the epitaxial growth of Si at temperatures below 600 C on polycrystalline seed layers using electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition. The Si seed layers were prepared by aluminum induced crystallization. The quality of the ECRCVD grown film strongly depends on the orientation of the underlying seed layer grains. Due to a preferential orientation of the seed layer close to 100 more than 73 of the substrate area were epitaxially thickene