Single-crystal Si formed on amorphous substrate at low temperature by nanopatterning and nickel-induced lateral crystallization

Single-crystal silicon has been achieved by patterning amorphous silicon film on silicon dioxide substrate into nanoscale lines and nickel-induced lateral crystallization. Line width affects the single-crystal silicon formation significantly. Narrow line widths, 30 nm or less, resulted in little lateral crystallization; while for line widths above 250 nm, multiple grains started to form. In-situ transmission electron microscope observation has been used to study the crystallization process. Lithography-constrained single seeding is proposed to explain the single-crystal formation.