Abstract.
The crystallinity of Si/SiNx multilayers annealed by a rapid thermal process and furnace annealing is investigated by a Raman-scattering technique and transmission electron microscopy. It is found that the crystallization temperature varies from 900 °C to 1000 °C when the thickness of a-Si:H decreases from 4.0 nm to 2.0 nm. Raman measurements imply that the high crystallization temperature for the a-Si:H sublayers originates from the confinement modulated by the interfaces between a-Si:H and a-SiNx:H. In addition to the annealing temperature, the thermal process also plays an important role in crystallization of a-Si sublayers. The a-Si:H sublayers thinner than 4.0 nm can not be crystallized by furnace annealing for 30 min, even when the annealing temperature is as high as 1000 °C. In contrast, rapid thermal annealing is advantageous for nucleation and crystallization. The origin of process-dependent crystallization in constrained a-Si:H is briefly discussed.
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Received: 11 April 2001 / Accepted: 20 June 2001 / Published online: 30 August 2001
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Wang, L., Huang, X., Ma, Z. et al. Thermal annealing of a-Si:H/a-SiNx:H multilayers . Appl Phys A 74, 783–786 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390100955
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390100955