Influence of deposition temperature on amorphous structure of PECVD deposited a-Si:H thin films

• Authors: Jarmila Müllerová , Marinus Fischer , Marie Netrvalová , Miro Zeman , Pavel Šutta
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The effect of deposition temperature on the structural and optical properties of amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) from silane diluted with hydrogen was under study. The series of thin films deposited at the deposition temperatures of 50–200°C were inspected by XRD, Raman spectroscopy and UV Vis spectrophotometry. All samples were found to be amorphous with no presence of the crystalline phase. Ordered silicon hydride regions were proved by XRD. Raman measurement analysis substantiated the results received from XRD showing that with increasing deposition temperature silicon-silicon bond-angle fluctuation decreases. The optical characterization based on transmittance spectra in the visible region presented that the refractive index exhibits upward trend with increasing deposition temperature, which can be caused by the densification of the amorphous network. We found out that the scale factor of the Tauc plot increases with the deposition temperature. This behaviour can be attributed to the increasing ordering of silicon hydride regions. The Tauc band gap energy, the iso-absorption value their difference were not particularly influenced by the deposition temperature. Improvements of the microstructure of the Si amorphous network have been deduced from the analysis.

Keywords

EN

amorphous silicon; thin films; structure; temperature

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Open Physics
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1301-1308

Dates

published

1 - 10 - 2011

online

15 - 9 - 2011

Contributors

author

Jarmila Müllerová

• Department of Engineering Fundamentals, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Žilina, ul. kpt. J. Nálepku 1390, 031 01, Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia

author

Marinus Fischer

• Delft Institute of Microsystems and Nanoelectronics (DIMES), Delft University of Technology, 2628 CT, Delft, The Netherlands

author

Marie Netrvalová

• New Technologies — Research Center, University of West Bohemia, Univerzitní 8, 306 14, Plzeň, Czech Republic

author

Miro Zeman

• Delft Institute of Microsystems and Nanoelectronics (DIMES), Delft University of Technology, 2628 CT, Delft, The Netherlands

author

Pavel Šutta

• New Technologies — Research Center, University of West Bohemia, Univerzitní 8, 306 14, Plzeň, Czech Republic

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s11534-011-0041-4