A team of researchers in the Netherlands have claimed that they have found a new way to produce silicon in polycrystalline form through liquid silicon ink along with a single laser pulse.

The team from Delft University of Technology have developed a fabrication method that allows them to manufacture silicon in polycrystalline form on a substrate using liquid silicon ink along with a single laser pulse. Experts said that the new discovery will allow new way of manufacturing and will be better than recently created ultra-thin substitutes.

Ryoichi Ishihara, the professor who led the research team at Delft University of Technology, collaborated with researchers at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Ishikawa, Japan for the study.

The researchers were working to find an alternative to silicon to develop advanced micro-electronic transistors. A range of research has been conducted on using varied organic and metal-oxide ink materials to create fully flexible electronic circuitry but these materials do not possess silicon's positive electronic properties but they have good printable quality.

It has been possible to print on silicon for a while but a thermal annealing step at 350°C was required that is extreme temperature to create flexible surfaces. The new process does not require such high heat levels as liquid silicon can be directly transformed into polysilicon.

"We coated liquid polysilane directly on paper by doctor-blading, or skimming it by a blade directly in an oxygen-free environment. Then we annealed the layer with an excimer-laser," Ishihara said.