Effects of hydrogen on poly- and nano-crystallization of a-Si:H prepared by RF magnetron sputtering

Effects of hydrogen atmosphere on pulsed-DC sputtered nanocrystalline Si:H films

“…1(a), where three sharp diffraction peaks at 28.58, 47.58, and 56.48, corresponding to (1 1 1), (2 2 0), and (3 1 1) reflections respectively, are clearly observed. Unlike previous reports [4,6], there is no evidence of preferred orientation or texture in our films. The crystallite size estimated using the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of (1 1 1) and the Scherrer equation is about 10 nm at 80% H 2 .…”

“…1(b). Seo et al [6] found similar results when they used inductive coupled plasma to enhance the concentration of reactive hydrogen species during RF magnetron sputtering of Si:H films. They discovered that although the Si-H bonds in plasma might facilitate the crystallization of the Si films by increasing the diffusion length of Si precursors on the substrate surface, excessive hydrogen would interrupt the formation of Si-Si bonds and degrade the crystallinity of the Si films.…”

“…Nevertheless, there have been few articles addressing this issue so far [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. We are thus investigating the control of crystallinity including both the crystalline volume fraction and crystallite size of nc-Si:H thin films prepared by an pulsed-DC magnetron sputtering method, which possesses such intrinsic advantages as higher plasma density/activity and deposition rate in comparison to its DC and RF counterparts respectively.…”

Plasma-Enhanced Reactive Magnetron Sputtering Assisted with Inductively Coupled Plasma for Reactivity-Controlled Deposition of Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Films

“…where I c , I c , and I a are the peak intensities of the crystalline, microcrystalline, and amorphous band, and m is the ratio of the cross section of the amorphous phase to that of the crystalline phase. [19][20][21] The average crystal size d (nm) was estimated from the (111) orientation of the XRD pattern using Scherrer's equation.…”

Alternating magnetic field-assisted crystallization of Si films without metal catalyst

“…Nowadays, however, the higher performance of TFTs is required for the flat panel displays, especially for AM-OLEDs; consequently, polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) crystallized at low temperatures have been attracting great attention because of their superior characteristics, such as fast carrier mobility and low driving voltage [3,4]. Various low-temperature crystallization techniques of a-Si deposited on glass substrates have been intensively studied, and among the low-temperature crystallization techniques, excimer laser crystallization (ELC) and solid phase crystallization (SPC) have been widely reported [4,5].…”