Structure, optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) properties of SiOx films subjected to thermal annealing at 750–1100 °C are investigated. Si crystallites with a few nanometers in size are observed in the SiO1.3 and SiO1.65 films annealed at 1100 °C. Threshold energies in optical absorption of the Si nanocrystallites are higher than that for bulk Si, suggesting a contribution from quantum confinement effects. The PL spectrum shows a remarkable increase in intensity after annealing at temperatures above 1000 °C. This PL behavior is closely related to the formation of Si nanocrystallites by the annealing. The PL peak energy of the annealed films shifts to higher energy with decreasing crystallite size but does not follow the blueshift for the absorption threshold energy. These results suggest that a localized state contributes to the PL mechanism. The SiO1.8 film annealed at 1100 °C, which contains no Si crystallites, exhibits an intense PL similar to the annealed SiO1.3 and SiO1.65 films. It is implied that noncrystalline Si nanoparticles are formed in the SiO1.8 film under high-temperature annealing.

Orientation-controlled large-grain (≥10 µm) crystal, i.e., quasi-single crystal, Ge-rich (≥50%) SiGe on insulator grown at low temperatures (≤300 °C) are desired for realization of high-performance flexible electronics. To achieve this, the Au-induced crystallization technique using a-SiGe/Au stacked structures has been developed. This enables formation of (111)-oriented large-grain (≥10 µm) Si1− x Ge x (x ≥ 0.5) crystals on insulating substrates at low temperatures (300 °C). The surface layers of the grown SiGe crystals have uniform lateral composition profiles. By using this technique, formation of quasi-single crystal Ge on flexible plastic sheets is demonstrated. This technique will be useful to realize high-performance flexible electronics.

Formation of position-controlled large-grain (≥10 μm) Ge crystals on insulator is realized at low-temperature (300 • C) by goldinduced-crystallization using a-Ge/Au stacked structures. By introduction of diffusion barriers, i.e., thin-Al 2 O 3 layers (2 nm thickness), having open-windows (3-20 μm diameter) into the a-Ge/Au interfaces, Ge crystals are selectively grown from the open windows. For open-windows with diameter of 20 μm, the grown areas consist of several Ge (111) grains. This is attributed to that several nuclei acting as seed are generated around the perimeters of the open windows. The number of seeds is linearly decreased by decreasing of the open-window diameter. As a result, (111)-oriented large (∼10 μm) Ge single-crystals, without any grain boundary, are obtained at controlled positions for open-windows with diameter of 3 μm. This technique will facilitate realization of flexible electronics and 3-dimensional large-scale integrated circuits, where Ge-based functional high-performance thin-film devices are integrated on flexible plastic substrates and/or amorphous insulating layers.

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