The degradation of ITO films bombarded by glow-discharge plasmas of H2, Ar, N2, B2H6 (2500 ppm in H2) and PH3 (2500 ppm in H2) are investigated. The ITO film temperature, the plasma bombarding time, and the RF power required to generate the plasma are taken as the parameters of these experiments. Degradation takes place at the lowest temperature (200–250°C) with the H2 plasma, followed by B2H6 and then by Ar in the order shown in Fig. 3. However, the films are only slightly degraded by the N2 and PH3 plasmas. SEM observation of degraded ITO films after bombardment with plasma shows that the ITO film in the degraded area separates almost completely from the substrate silicon crystal and is spherodized into many small particles of In-Sn alloy.

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Hydrogenated amorphous silicon was grown from disilane by rf glow discharge. Deuterium (D) was used as a tracer gas in this investigation, in which two gas mixtures (Si2H6+D2 and Si2D6+H2) were employed. Amorphous silicon so produced was analyzed for 1H and D by Rutherford recoil measurement to determine whether these elements came from disilane or dilution gas. When the rf power is low, a much larger proportion of hydrogen atoms in disilane (1H in case of Si2H6, D in case of Si2D6) than in the dilution gas is found in the amorphous silicon. The exact reverse is true as the rf power becomes large.

Here we report the doping characteristics of a-SiC:H, specifically the dark conductivity peak of P-type a-SiC:H. When the CH4 concentration in the gas rhixture of Sill4, CH4 and B2H~ was varied under constant B2H~ concentration, a clear darkconductivity peak was observed for glow-discharged a-SiC:H film at nearly 20% of CH4. The peak becomes clearer below 0.5 % of B2H~ in the gas mixture. We have not yet seen this feature reported in the literature. No peak is observed for undoped and phosphorus-doped a-SiC:H.