Planarization of rough silicon surfaces by laser annealing

Rough silicon (or silicon alloy) surfaces are sometimes obtained after epitaxy or processes for micromachining due to unusual experimental conditions imposed by external constraints. We show that excimer laser annealing has an efficient ability to reduce roughness to nm scale, providing the surface melts under laser irradiation. No large improvement is observed above the melting threshold and only few laser shots (<10) are often sufficient.