title: In situ TEM near-field optical probing of nanoscale silicon crystallization.
abstract: Laser-based processing enables a wide variety of device configurations comprising thin films and nanostructures on sensitive, flexible substrates that are not possible with more traditional thermal annealing schemes. In near-field optical probing, only small regions of a sample are illuminated by the laser beam at any given time. Here we report a new technique that couples the optical near-field of the laser illumination into a transmission electron microscope (TEM) for real-time observations of the laser-materials interactions. We apply this technique to observe the transformation of an amorphous confined Si volume to a single crystal of Si using laser melting. By confinement of the material volume to nanometric dimensions, the entire amorphous precursor is within the laser spot size and transformed into a single crystal. This observation provides a path for laser processing of single-crystal seeds from amorphous precursors, a potentially transformative technique for the fabrication of solar cells and other nanoelectronic devices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-7118, USA.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Jung Bin
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: In
authors.forename: Sang-Gil
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.forename: Jae-Hyuck
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dubon
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Minor
authors.forename: Costas P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Grigoropoulos