Crystallization of an amorphous Si film, deposited onto a Pyrex glass substrate using a linearly polarized Nd:YAG pulse-laser beam, was studied. It was found that, in the crystallized film, the grain boundaries were aligned with a period of about 550nm; the wavelength of the laser beam. In the case of films which were crystallized by using a circularly polarized beam which passed through a λ/4 plate, grain boundaries were randomly generated. It was concluded that linear polarization of a laser beam was essential in order to align grain boundaries periodically, or to produce a periodic temperature distribution in irradiated Si films.

Alignment of Grain Boundary in a Si Film Crystallized by a Linearly Polarized Laser Beam on a Glass Substrate. S.Horita, Y.Nakata, A.Shimoyama: Applied Physics Letters, 2001, 78[15], 2250-2