Mixed-phase solidification of thin Si films on SiO2

Mixed-phase solidification (MPS) is a new beam-induced solidification method that can produce large-grained and highly (1 0 0)-surface textured polycrystalline Si films on SiO₂. The grains resulting from this mixed-phase solidification (MPS) method, which was conceived based on a well-known phenomenon of coexisting solid–liquid regions in radiatively melted Si films, are found to be essentially devoid of various intragrain defects that always plague, and subsequently degrade the utility of large-grained Si films previously obtained using other crystallization techniques. It is experimentally shown that multiple exposures are required in order to generate such a polycrystalline microstructure from an initial amorphous precursor. The observed trends are conceptually explained in terms of the melt being initiated primarily at grain boundaries in polycrystalline films, and melting and solidification subsequently proceeding laterally at interface-location specific rates as determined by the local thermodynamic factors, which include the anisotropic surface and interfacial energies of the grains, and the unusual local thermal profile—all transpiring within a near-equilibrium but nonisothermal and dynamic environment that needs to address the thermal and stability requirements associated with the coexisting solid–liquid regions.