Nucleation and grain growth in low-temperature rapid solid-phase crystallization of hydrogen-doped indium oxide

Abstract Nucleation and grain growth are discussed as a means of clarifying the mechanism of the rapid solid-phase crystallization (SPC) process of H 2 -doped amorphous indium oxide (InO x :H) films. H 2 -doping in InO x :H films reduced nucleation density at 250 °C from 4.1 to 1.1 μ m −2 , resulting in an increase in grain size and Hall mobility of the polycrystalline (poly)-InO x :H films. Lateral growth rate from the nucleus was estimated to be 220 nm min −1 for the InO x :H film at 250 °C. Thus, an amorphous InO x :H film could be converted to a poly-InO x :H film within 3 min owing to a fast lateral growth rate from the nucleus. Almost the same grain size, Hall mobility, and carrier density could be obtained from the poly-InO x :H films after annealing at 250 °C for only 3 min irrespective of the ramp rate. The results demonstrated the wide range of the processing window for SPC for poly-InO x :H films.