Morphology and structure of nanocrystalline p-doped silicon films produced by hot wire technique

Crystal growth in the low-temperature deposition of polycrystalline silicon thin film

“…This morphology is quite different from those of poly-Si films deposited by other researchers [8][9][10]12]. From our review on previous papers on the microstructure of the poly-Si films by HWCVD [8][9][10] and DC plasma CVD [12], we found that most of the films are composed of crystallites with rough surfaces. The crystallite shape is cauliflower-like or prismatic when the crystallinity of film is low [8,12].…”

“…2 was only $2%. This value is much smaller compared with the 7-53% volume fractions for a-Si in poly-Si films deposited by conventional HWCVD [8][9][10]. It is thought that the enhanced density of the atomic hydrogen due to the multiple wires in this study inhibits co-deposition of a-Si, thereby improving the crystallinity and promoting the faceted growth of crystallites.…”

“…From our review on previous papers on the microstructure of the poly-Si films by HWCVD [8][9][10] and DC plasma CVD [12], we found that most of the films are composed of crystallites with rough surfaces. The crystallite shape is cauliflower-like or prismatic when the crystallinity of film is low [8,12]. However, as the crystallinity is improved, apex is developed at ARTICLE IN PRESS the crystallite [9,10], despite the rough surface, the films deposited by Lee et al [9,10] also contain rhombic pyramid crystallites.…”

“…Although extensive research has been focused on the microstructure of HWCVD deposited polySi films [8][9][10], crystallographic faces of individual crystallites in the poly-Si films have so far not been identified. This was thought to have been caused by the rough surface of poly-Si films deposited by conventional HWCVD, resulting in uncertain crystallite morphology.…”

Influence of the Rapid Thermal Annealing on the Properties of Thin a-Si Films

“…This increase is a result of the transition of the amorphous silicon to a polycrystalline, confirmed by X ray diffraction. Figure 4 shows the X ray diffraction pattern of a film annealed at 1200 C. The value of samples annealed at 1000 o C is close to those of polysilicon films deposited by LPCVD [5]. Thus the electrical measurements indicate that the films annealed at this temperature have an incipient crystallization.…”