Description of grain boundary formation in laser recrystallized Si films

A simulation of grain boundary formation is made for optimizing process parameters of laser recrystallization of Si films encapsulated in SiO2 layers. In our simulation of laser zone melting, the competing growth from the polycrystalline grains which never melt is taken into account. The conformity between the network of the grain-boundaries of a recrystallized sample using a gaussian shaped laser and the simulation result is acceptable. We used this simulation program to investigate the impact of the laser intensity distribution on the boundaries after recrystallization. We find that the temperature gradients during the recrystallization are a very important parameter controlling the average distance between boundaries. We will show how beam-shaping and integrated absorbers may help to get boundary-free monocrystalline silicon films.