Excimer laser annealing of silicon nanowires

Nanowires can potentially be used with low-cost flexible plastic substrates for applications such as large-area displays and sensor arrays. However, high temperature processing steps such as thermal annealing that are incompatible with plastic substrates are still a major hindrance. Laser annealing permits localized energy input without affecting the underlying substrate and can help overcome this problem. In this study, the excimer laser annealing of silicon nanowires is demonstrated to be an efficient means of activating implanted dopants. The optical absorption of the nanowires is discussed and the effect of parameters such as fluence and number of pulses is investigated.