Amorphous and microcrystalline silicon-germanium alloys, a-SixGel.x:H and gtc-SixGel.x:H, respectively, have been prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering (RMS) from pure crystalline Si and Ge targets in a hydrogen ambient using argon as the sputtering gas. We have investigated the structural, optical, and electronic properties of the as-deposited films. The optical and electrical properties, e.g., the ambipolar diffusion length, photoconductivity, and photosensitivity, were found to be comparable to those of device-grade a-SixGeI.x:H alloys, e.g., films with x-0.5, and band-gaps -1.3-1.4 eV. In contrast to the behavior of the a-SixGel-x:H alloys, the pjc-SixGei1x:H alloys do not display a Staebler-Wronski effect, as manifested by a decay of the photoconductivity under intense illumination.
We have investigated on the effect of different substrate surfaces in changing the microstructure of μc-SixGe1-x:H films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering. Films were deposited on hydrogen terminated Si(111), Si(100) surfaces, and surfaces chemical and plasma oxides. The thin film microstructure was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman scattering.
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