The effect of stress stimulation on gold (Au) induced lateral crystallization (GILC) of amorphous Ge on insulating substrates is investigated. As a result, the GILC is significantly enhanced by using compressive residual stresses of up to 200 MPa in TEOS-SiO2. In addition, it is found that the annealing temperature necessary to cause the GILC for a short annealing time (60 min) can be decreased to 130 °C. We have demonstrated that the GILC enhancement was caused by the stress stimulation contributed to bond rearrangement and Au easily diffused into Ge. This study proposes a unique low temperature crystallization technique that introduces a residual film stress on metal induced lateral crystallization, paving the way for the low-cost fabrication of flexible electronic devices on low-softening temperature plastic substrates.
