A Method to Evaluate Explosive Crystallization Velocity of Amorphous Silicon Films during Flash Lamp Annealing

Flash lamp annealing (FLA) of micrometer-order-thick amorphous silicon (a-Si) films can induce explosive crystallization (EC), high-speed lateral crystallization driven by the release of latent heat. We develop multi-pulse flash lamp annealing (FLA) system, which emits a quasi-millisecond pulse consisting of a number of sub-pulses. The emission frequency of the sub-pulses can be systematically controlled, and the emission of sub-pulses leads to the periodic modulation of the temperature of a Si film and the resulting formation of macroscopic stripe patterns. The relationship between a sub-pulse emission frequency and the width of the macroscopic stripe patterns yields EC velocity. Two kinds of EC modes can be observed, depending on the methods of precursor a-Si deposition and/or a-Si film thickness