Pseudo-crystalline silicon thin films with carbon nanotube electron beam exposure

Carbon nanotube emitters are grown by a resist-assisted patterning process and used as an electron source for the crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films in this paper. We achieved nano-crystalline silicon films with our carbon nanotube electron beam (C-beam) irradiation technique. The grain size was approximately 30–40 nm with a 96% crystalline fraction. Cross-sectional analysis with TEM and EBSD measurement showed that these crystallized silicon thin films indicated full crystallization with very small grain boundaries. We define our C-beam-exposed crystalline silicon thin films as pseudo-crystalline (pc) silicon because of their higher crystallinity and lesser grain boundaries. The pc-silicon thin films could be applied in thin film transistors for flat panel display.