Highly (100)-oriented growth of polycrystalline silicon films on glass by pulsed magnetron sputtering

Nominally undoped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films were deposited on glass at 450 deg C at high deposition rate (>100 nm/min) by pulsed dc magnetron sputtering. The pulse frequency was found to have a significant influence on the preferred grain orientation. The x-ray diffraction pattern exhibits a strong enhancement of the (400) reflex with increasing pulse frequency. The quantitative evaluation reveals that over 90 % of the grains are (100) oriented.The observed change in preferred grain orientation in poly-Si films at low temperatures is associated with concurrent ion bombardment of the growing film.