Dependence of resistivity on the doping level of polycrystalline silicon

Abstract

The electrical resistivity of polycrystalline silicon films has been studied as a function of doping concentration and heat treatment. The films were grown by the chemical vapor decomposition of silane on oxidized silicon wafers. The resistivity of the as−deposited films was widely scattered but independent of dopant atom concentration at the lightly doped levels and was strong function of dopant level in the more heavily doped regions. Postdeposition heat treatments in an oxidizing atmosphere remove scatter in the data. The resultant resistivity for dopant levels less than 1016 atoms/cm3 was approximately equal to that of intrinsic silicon. In the next 2 orders of magnitude increase in dopant level, the resistivity dropped 6 orders of magnitude. A model, based on high dopant atom segregation in the grain boundaries, is proposed to explain the results.

Electrical conduction mechanism in polycrystalline titanium oxide thin films

“…Evidently, in polycrystalline semiconducting films, the conduction mechanism is strongly influenced by the inherent intercrystalline boundaries [19,22,23]. Therefore, electronic transport can be explained by applying the models elaborated for films with discrete polycrystalline structure: Volger [24], Petritz [25], Seto [26], etc.…”

Transport Properties of As-Prepared Al-Doped Zinc Oxide Films Using Sol-Gel Method

“…On the other hand, the most well-studied semiconducting material is silicon. The electrical properties of polycrystalline silicon have been extensively investigated in terms of two models: segregation theory [9] and grain-boundary (g.b.) trapping theory [10].…”

A Novel Method to Make Boron-Doped Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Films with Optimal Crystalline Volume Fraction for Thin Films Solar Cell Applications

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