Effect of metal underlayers on low temperature silicon growth.

Silicon films were deposited on bare glass, copper- and gold-coated glass substrates at 200 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the films deposited on substrates with gold underlayer were polycrystalline while those deposited on bare glass and copper-coated glass had no identifiable crystalline silicon XRD peak. Raman spectroscopy was used to confirm the film’s crystalline properties. The Raman spectra indicated that films deposited on gold-coated glass substrates were composed of predominantly crystalline silicon with small amounts of amorphous silicon. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to study the topography and adatom diffusion on the surface. AFM micrographs showed that the polycrystalline silicon films had grain size up to 95 nm. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]