Abstract
Poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films have been prepared by aluminum induced crystallization (AiC) technique. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films were prepared by sputtering a silicon target in hydrogen and argon ambient. It was observed that deposition rates increased more than two folds with the introduction of the hydrogen in the deposition chamber. The a-Si:H thin films were coated with a thin layer of sputtered aluminum (AI). X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed that the crystallization commenced at as low as 225�C. The depth profile of the annealed samples, obtained by scanning Auger microscopy (SAM), did not show any layer exchange below 300�C. The SAM analysis showed clear layer exchange in the higher temperature ( >350�C) region.
