A minimal grain growth was there in silicon thin film from 60 nm (initial) to 80 nm (in final) after sintering for 30 min. Sintering temperature was around 950 C. After this no grain growth was there for even longer time.
Can anyone help me to understand this?
A cease in grain growth may be attributed to the presence of some contamination at the boundaries, especially if it started and then stopped. There are growth models dealing with this phenomena (take a look at growth models with impediment; I have some in the attached article), but your grains only grow very slightly, therefore fitting a model to the data (grain size vs. time of sintering) is probably not an option for you. I'd take a careful look at the composition of the film, since the grains are still rather small to take a direct look at the boundaries.
Article Crystallite growth in nanocrystalline tungsten; rate determi...
Also take into the due account the substrate on which your nanocrystalline Si film is deposited before sintering. At 950 degC it can provide oxygen or nitrogen (or whichever may diffuse out of a partially dissolved interface). Such "contaminants will easily react with silicon at grain boundaries so reducing the Si-to-Si surface diffusion, that is redicing and even stopping the grain growth. Something similar may happen if contaminants are present in the sintering environment.
Thank you for your answer. I have used quartz glass slides for deposition so contaminants from substrate has little chances to diffuse.
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