Temperature dependence of the refractive indices and optical band gap of thin amorphous silicon films

The variation of the optical constants with temperature for amorphous silicon (a-Si), as well as other solids, is important in photothermal processing, such as laser annealing. Although crystal silicon and other semiconductor materials have been studied extensively, a-Si is less studied in this aspect. Previous studies have reported that there is insignificant temperature dependence of the absorption coefficient at the Nd laser wavelength (1.06 μ)1,2 for a-Si samples of submicron thickness. This has then been sometimes assumed to be a general property of a-Si in studies involving laser pulse interaction with the material.3

© 1992 Optical Society of America