Surface morphology created by nanosecond laser annealing of amorphised Si layer—Investigations by complementary methods

The formation of morphological structures on an amorphised Si surface by annealing with nanosecond laser pulse is studied. The resulting structures are investigated by complementary methods: interference microscopy with Nomarski contrast, atomic force microscopy and high-resolution electron microscopy. The evolution of the misfit morphological structures for variable fluence of the laser beam and for variable area of the focused laser beam is shown.