Measurement of local stress in laser-recrystallized lateral epitaxial silicon films over silicon dioxide using Raman scattering

Abstract

Raman microprobe measurements of stress have been performed on a laser-recrystallized, seeded, lateral epitaxial silicon film on an oxidized silicon wafer. The direction-averaged, planar tensile stress increased from 2×109 dyn/cm2 in the seed region to 5×109 dyn/cm2 in the silicon-on-insulator region at distances greater than 20 μm from the seed/silicon-on-insulator boundary. Grain-boundary nucleation observed by optical Nomarski microscopy occurred approximately 11 μm from the seed edge in this film. Depth variations of the stress were observed by comparing measurements using 457-nm and 514.5-nm excitation wavelengths.