Crystallization of Isolated Amorphous Zones in Semiconductors

Abstract

Software was developed to detect, measure and track individual amorphous zones throughout a series of irradiation micrographs. Characteristic zone shrinkage behaviors were observed. A simple shrinkage model suggests that the defects responsible for regrowth are created very near the crystalline/amorphous interface. In the sub-threshold electron energy regime, crystallization is thought to be initiated by an electronic excitation which creates a dangling bond pair. By migrating along the crystalline/amorphous interface these dangling bonds are capable of reconstructing to the crystal a large number of atoms through a mechanism similar to that for thermally activated solid phase epitaxial growth.