Au induced lateral crystallization of amorphous Ge with stress stimulation at 130 C-circle

The effect of stress stimulation on gold (Au) induced lateral crystallization (GILC) of amorphous Ge on insulating substrates is investigated. As a result, the GILC is significantly enhanced by using compressive residual stresses of up to 200 MPa in TEOS-SiO2. In addition, it is found that the annealing temperature necessary to cause the GILC for a short annealing time (60 min) can be decreased to 130 degrees C. We have demonstrated that the GILC enhancement was caused by the stress stimulation contributed to bond rearrangement and Au easily diffused into Ge. This study proposes a unique low temperature crystallization technique that introduces a residual film stress on metal induced lateral crystallization, paving the way for the low-cost fabrication of flexible electronic devices on low-softening temperature plastic substrates.