Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2011
The present level of development of excimer lasers, as it relates to semiconductor processing, and the advantages of these lasers for such processing, are reviewed. Extensive comparisons of the quality of annealing of ion-implanted Si obtained with XeCl and ruby lasers are presented. Major applications in the area of solar cell fabrication, siliconon-sapphire technology, laser photochemical processing, and submicron optical lithography are outlined and discussed.