The low-temperature formation of nanocrystalline Si (nc-Si) in SiOx film is one of the key technologies in the realization of Si-based photonics and memories. We proposed a low-temperature nc-Si formation method with soft X-ray irradiation. The nc-Si formation depended on the Si/O atomic ratio in the pristine SiOx film. The Si-rich regions in SiOx films with Si/O ratios higher than 0.67 were crystallized by atomic migration via electron excitation with soft X-ray irradiation at a photon energy near the core level of Si 2p. nc-Si with a mean size of 20 nm was formed by soft X-ray irradiation at a low temperature of 660 °C.

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