Apparatus for improving crystalline thin films with a contoured beam pulsed laser

A contoured beam annealing apparatus comprising:

• a source of pulsed optical energy for generating pulsed optical energy having a wavelength in the range of about 157 nm to 351 nm, a pulse duration in the range of about 10 nsec to 1 msec, and a pulse repetition rate of about 1 Hz;
• a heat source coupled to the source of pulsed optical energy for reducing contoured beam fluence;
• an optical beam homogenizer coupled to the pulsed optical energy source for imparting a substantially spatially uniform intensity profile to the pulsed optical energy;
• beam contouring optics coupled to the beam homogenizer for transforming the spatially uniform intensity profile of the pulsed optical energy to a contoured intensity profile that is one of a linear and non-linear graded intensity profile having a gradient oriented at an angle with respect to the direction of annealing in a chevron-shaped or partially chevron-shaped footprint that favors single crystal growth along preferred growth planes to form a crystalline lattice structure;
• and beam steering optics coupled to the beam contouring optics for directing the contoured intensity profile along a surface of a thin film by repetitive illuminations in at least one of overlapping, abutting, and non-overlapping of previously illuminated portions of the thin film to form at least one of continuous and isolated crystalline regions.