以鎳金屬矽化物誘發側向結晶法結晶非晶質矽的方法來製備高品質、低溫複晶矽薄膜，近年來受到廣泛的研究。本實驗室之前的研究發現，蒸鍍上不同曲率的鎳金屬覆蓋層對於所誘發的複晶矽薄膜，無論在結晶性或結晶形態上都有著明顯的影響。在本論文中，我們利用高分辨電子顯微鏡配合能量散佈光譜分析儀來研究以鎳金屬誘發側向結晶的複晶矽薄膜，其在成長初始階段的現象及成長機制。
首先，我們發現對於由曲率無限小(長方形)的鎳覆蓋層所誘發的複晶矽，其初始成長是呈現一個[211]的軸向(zone axis)，而後轉向[110]軸向來成長延伸，且結晶矽的成長為長直狀的結晶形態﹔然而，隨著曲率的增加(圓形)，複晶矽的初始軸向改為[110]方位，並且呈現樹枝狀分枝的成長形態，而其內部伴隨著許多雙晶缺陷的產生。此外，在高溫的誘發結晶溫度下，雙晶缺陷的數量顯著增加，我們推測是由於高溫下，受傳統固相結晶程序支配的關係。

在另一方面，我們利用能量散佈光譜分析儀來研究在結晶矽前端的鎳金屬矽化物中，其鎳元素的特性X光的強度分布﹔在以鎳金屬誘發結晶法結晶非晶質矽的相關研究中，這是第一次我們可以去探討鎳原子在矽化鎳中及矽化鎳與結晶矽界面處的分佈情況。對於解決長久以來鎳原子擴散機制的問題，無疑是個好的研究開端。

Recently, there are extensive studies on the fabrication of high quality and low process temperature polycrystalline silicon thin film by the nickel metal induced lateral crystallization (Ni-MILC) method. Our previous works indicated that, changing the curvature of nickel pattern would have serious impact on the crystallinity and quality of the induced crystallites. In this thesis, by using the high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) analyses, we present the results of investigating the atomic structure evolution of the mechanism for nickel metal induced lateral crystallization of amorphous silicon.
For the rectangular nickel pattern, the [211] projected crystallites was found at the initial stage of crystallization and immediately transfer to the [110] orientation. The morphology of induced crystallites was straight and parallel to each other. As increasing of the curvature, dendrite-like crystallites with [110] projection grew wildly resulted in poor crystallinity due to the creation of large quantity of micro-twins. Moreover, during high process temperature, the density of micro-twins increased rapidly due to the dominating solid phase crystallization (SPC) process.

The Ni distribution profiles of NiSi2 precipitates in the leading front, was studied by using the EDS line scan function. It is the first time, the nickel distribution within the NiSi2 nodule and the interface area of NiSi2 / c-Si can be studied in detail. The results may provide the direct evidence to the solution of the long-time debating problem which is the nickel diffusion mechanism at the leading front upon MILC process.

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