Rapid melt crystallization of amorphous-silicon thin films.

We investigated the potential to melt crystallize amorphous Si thin films on glass with electromagnetic irradiation at 13.56 MHz, 2.45 GHz, and 110 GHz, respectively. We showed that the melt crystallization of millimeter-wave annealing could be an ideal choice for achieving high-quality semiconductor thin films with thickness in the micron range. In particular, silicon pillars with large ultra-high crystalline quality grains were experimentally realized by millimeter-wave annealing amorphous silicon on glass. Our simulation results were consistent with the experimental ones. Such understandings may enable us to prepare high-quality thin films on inexpensive substrates for solar cells and other solid-state devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]