A piece of amorphous silicon made by self ion implantation was structurally relaxed by thermal annealing at 650 ºC whereafter one half of the sample was re-implanted to bring it back to a non-relaxed state. The sample was next submitted to a series of low-temperature anneals (425 - 435 ºC) in order to induce solid phase epitaxial crystallization and the growth rate was measured on both halves of the sample. No difference was found within an uncertainty of ± 3 % which would imply that the activation energy for solid phase epitaxial regrowth remains constant to within 2 meV under structural relaxation.

Yohann C Lavigueur*, Université de Montréal, Canada
Sjoerd Roorda, Université de Montréal, Canada

*presenting author