Low-temperature Epitaxial Growth of a Uniform Polycrystalline Si Film with Large Grains on SiO₂ Substrate by Al-assisted Crystal Growth

Epitaxial growth of a high-quality thin Si film is essential for the application to low-cost thin-film Si solar cells. A polycrystalline Si film was grown on a $SiO_2$ substrate at $450^{\circ}C$ by a Al-assisted crystal growth process. For the purpose, a thin Al layer was deposited on the $SiO_2$ substrate for Al-assisted crystal growth. However, the epitaxial growth of Si film resulted in a rough surface with humps. Then, we introduced a thin amorphous Si seed layer on the Al film to minimize the initial roughness of Si film. With the help of the Si seed layer, the surface of the epitaxial Si film was smooth and the crystallinity of the Si film was much improved. The grain size of the $1.5-{\mu}m$-thick Si film was as large as 1 mm. The Al content in the Si film was 3.7% and the hole concentration was estimated to be $3{\times}10^{17}/cm^3$, which was one order of magnitude higher than desirable value for Si base layer. The results suggest that Al-doped Si layer could be use as a seed layer for additional epitaxial growth of intrinsic or boron-doped Si layer because the Al-doped Si layer has large grains.