Increasing electrical conductivity in sputter-deposited Si/SiGe multilayers through electrical pulse based annealing

Low temperature deposition, by sputtering, on flexible/plastic substrates offers a relatively cheap alternative for fabricating single-/multilayer thin film devices. However, sputtering yields amorphous material, with low electrical conductivity, and requires subsequent annealing. Demonstrated is a new method of crystallisation, where controlled application of electrical pulses to sputter deposited Si/Si_0.8Ge_0.2 multilayers is shown to decrease the electrical resistance by as much as 80%.