Nanocrystalline silicon thin films prepared by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering

Structural properties of intrinsic and doped nc‐Si:H films prepared by RFMS: Study as function of deposition time and substrate temperature

“…Figure 4 shows an example of Raman spectra obtained for the intrinsic and the (n or p) doped thick samples deposited during 30 minutes and at 100 °C. All the spectra present very intense asymmetric peaks centred between 516 and 520 cm -1 , indicating that these samples contain an important crystalline fraction [11,12]. In addition, the peaks associated to the doped samples are centred towards 520 cm -1 , while that of the intrinsic sample is shifted towards 516 cm -1 .…”

Silicon Nanocrystal Flash Memory

“…Size, density, and location of the nc-Si dots were demonstrated to correlate with the dose and acceleration of ion as well as the subsequent annealing conditions, however hard it may be to make precise control [57]. Other preparation methods that have been used for forming nc-Si dots rely on crystallization of amorphous silicon [58] or aerosol nc-Si dots from silane pyrolysis [31] and various sputtering techniques [59]. It is worthwhile to mention that most of sputtering approaches need postannealing a temperature up to 1000 C.…”

Effects of high hydrogen dilution on the optical and electrical properties in B-doped nc-Si:H thin films

“…nc-Si:H thin film is a two-phase-mixed material, in which nanocrystals embedded in the amorphous silicon tissues in the interface regions among the grains [3]. Several deposition techniques have been established to prepare nc-Si:H thin films, including plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [4][5][6][7], hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) [8], and radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering [9], among which PECVD appears to be a promising deposition method for large-area thin film technology and has been employed for industrial applications [5].…”

“…It is obvious that different deposition conditions such as hydrogen dilution [4,7,8,[10][11][12], doping concentration [5,12], substrate temperature [13], and chamber pressure [9], may influence the optical and electrical properties of the nc-Si:H films. Especially, the effect of hydrogen dilution ratio (H 2 /SiH 4 ) has been demonstrated to play an important role in the structure and property of ncSi:H [7][8][9][10][11][12] and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) [14].…”

“…Especially, the effect of hydrogen dilution ratio (H 2 /SiH 4 ) has been demonstrated to play an important role in the structure and property of ncSi:H [7][8][9][10][11][12] and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) [14]. To the best of our knowledge, as far as nc-Si:H deposited by PECVD is concerned, the effect of high hydrogen dilution (such as H 2 /SiH 4 from 62.5 to 142.9 in this article) on properties of nc-Si:H has been scarcely investigated, although some studies about the effect and role of low hydrogen dilution (H 2 /SiH 4 p40) are available in the literature [4,7].…”