Abstract:
A method of determining the crystalline or structural quality of phase transformable material such as silicon uses light scattering. The material is exposed to a beam of light of a selected wavelength. Scattered light having an intensity above a threshold is detected to provide a signal which is used to control the intensity of a display beam of a visual display device. The threshold is varied to thereby vary the display beam intensity so as to provide the minimum intensity of display beam which yields a full display. The value of the thusly adjusted threshold intensity is used as a direct measure of the structural quality of the material.The light scattering process is used to determine the phase of deposited material.A layer of silicon material annealed from as-deposited amorphous phase material is easily and quickly distinguished from material as-deposited crystalline phase material and subsequently annealed.