Kinetics of the laser-induced solid phase crystallization of amorphous silicon—Time-resolved Raman spectroscopy and computer simulations

Highlights: • Mathematical model for crystallization in a non-uniform temp. field was designed. • Quantitative analyses of Raman spectra are presented. • Analyses of the crystallization kinetics using laser irradiation are introduced. • Laser-induced crystallization kinetics of a-Si thin film was analyzed in detail. - Abstract: This study demonstrates that a laser-induced crystallization instrumented with Raman spectroscopy is, in general, an effective tool to study the thermally activated crystallization kinetics. It is shown, for the solid phase crystallization of an amorphous silicon thin film, that the integral intensity of Raman spectra corresponding to the crystalline phase grows linearly in the time-logarithmic scale. A mathematical model, which assumes random nucleation and crystal growth, was designed to simulate the crystallization process in the non-uniform temperature field induced by laser. The model is based on solving the Eikonal equation and the Arhenius temperature dependence of the crystal nucleation and the growth rate. These computer simulations successfully approximate the crystallization process kinetics and suggest that laser-induced crystallization is primarily thermally activated.