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To systematically study the crystallization process of electron-beam evaporated amorphous silicon on ZnO:Al-coated glass for polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cells, transmission electron microscopy and optical microscopy were employed. A time and temperature dependent analysis allowed the individual investigation of the growth and nucleation processes. The growth velocities of Si-crystals on ZnO:Al and SiN-coated glass were found to be identical within the investigated temperature regime of 500–600 °C. However, with a high steady state nucleation rate and a low activation energy, the nucleation process of Si on ZnO:Al-coated glass has shown to differ significantly from nucleation on glass.

Annealing of aluminum/amorphous silicon bilayers below the eutectic temperature of the aluminum/silicon system leads to an exchange of the layer positions and a concurrent crystallization of silicon (aluminum-induced layer exchange). This letter discusses a model for the self-limited suppression of nucleation during the process. This characteristic feature is the reason why large grain sizes can be obtained. In our experiments, we combine nucleation caused by supersaturation and undercooling. Si depletion regions around existing grains are made visible. These experiments give direct proof of the idea that the suppression of nucleation occurs by Si depletion in the aluminum-induced layer exchange process.