Transient depletion of source gases during materials processing: a case study on the plasma deposition of microcrystalline silicon

Donker, van den Mn Menno; Rech, Bernd; Kessels, Wmm Erwin; Sanden, van de Mcm Richard

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/9/8/280

Cited by 33 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…2,17,18 High pressure depletion process settings included a power range ͑P rf ͒ of 60-120 W, a pressure ͑p dep ͒ range of 5-15 Torr, a substrate temperature of 200°C, and a H 2 flow ͑f H2 ͒ of 360 SCCM ͑SCCM denotes cubic centimeter per minute at STP͒. For each fixed setting of p dep and P rf , the SiH 4 flow ͑f SiH4 ͒ was varied between 0 and 10 SCCM to deposit films ranging from highly crystalline to purely amorphous silicon.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The atomic hydrogen flux to silicon growth flux ratio during microcrystalline silicon solar cell deposition

Dingemans

Donker

Hrunski

et al. 2008

Applied Physics Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The H flux to Si growth flux ratio is experimentally determined under state-of-the-art silicon thin-film deposition conditions by employing the recently introduced etch product detection technique. Under the technologically relevant high-pressure depletion conditions and for different process parameter settings such as pressure, SiH4 concentration, rf power, and excitation frequency, it was demonstrated that the microcrystalline to amorphous silicon phase transition is uniquely and reactor independently determined by the flux ratio of H and Si growth species.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More information on the used linear dependence is given in Ref. 18. Note that this procedure should be repeated for every fixed plasma setting throughout a f SiH4 optimization series.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The atomic hydrogen flux to silicon growth flux ratio during microcrystalline silicon solar cell deposition

Dingemans

Donker

Hrunski

et al. 2008

Applied Physics Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The H 2 plasma treatment time was set at Ͻ60 s to diminish H-induced material modification 11,14,18 and the influence of redeposition. 19,20 The time averaged baseline corrected SiH * emission at 414.3 nm proved to scale with the SiH 4 density 13,21 and is used here as a measure for the abundance of etch products during H 2 plasma treatment. After H 2 treatment the next cycle commences with the deposition of a fresh silicon film on top of the previous film using a different SiH 4 flow.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Probing the phase composition of silicon films in situ by etch product detection

Dingemans

Donker

Gordijn

et al. 2007

Applied Physics Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Exploiting the higher etch probability for amorphous silicon relative to crystalline silicon, the transiently evolving phase composition of silicon films in the microcrystalline growth regime was probed in situ by monitoring the etch product (SiH4) gas density during a short H2 plasma treatment step. Etch product detection took place by the easy-to-implement techniques of optical emission spectroscopy and infrared absorption spectroscopy. The phase composition of the films was probed as a function of the SiH4 concentration during deposition and as a function of the film thickness. The in situ results were corroborated by Raman spectroscopy and solar cell analysis.

show abstract

“…Low initial I RS C results from transient depletion of the process gases which typically occurs in PECVD processes. 13,23,41 For the subsequent layer growth crystallites evolve conically and I RS C increases. 1,9 Decreasing I RS C under comparably high SC conditions was also observed previously by TEM measurements: 9 In these experiments thin-film silicon was grown on crystalline silicon substrates for process conditions which promote low I RS C .…”

Section: First Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Interplay between crystallinity profiles and the performance of microcrystalline thin-film silicon solar cells studied by in-situ Raman spectroscopy

Fink

Muthmann

Mück

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Physics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The intrinsic microcrystalline absorber layer growth in thin-film silicon solar-cells is investigated by in-situ Raman spectroscopy during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. In-situ Raman spectroscopy enables a detailed study of the correlation between the process settings, the evolution of the Raman crystallinity in growth direction, and the photovoltaic parameters η (solar cell conversion efficiency), JSC (short circuit current density), FF (fill factor), and VOC (open circuit voltage). Raman spectra were taken every 7 nm of the absorber layer growth depending on the process settings. The Raman crystallinity of growing microcrystalline silicon was determined with an absolute error of approximately ±5% for total absorber layer thicknesses >50 nm. Due to this high accuracy, inherent drifts of the Raman crystallinity profiles are resolvable for almost the entire absorber layer deposition. For constant process settings and optimized solar cell device efficiency Raman crystallinity increases during the absorber layer growth. To compensate the inhomogeneous absorber layer growth process settings were adjusted. As a result, absorber layers with a constant Raman crystallinity profile — as observed in-situ — were deposited. Solar cells with those absorber layers show a strongly enhanced conversion efficiency by ∼0.5% absolute. However, the highest FF, VOC, and JSC were detected for solar cells with different Raman crystallinity profiles. In particular, fill factors of 74.5% were observed for solar cells with decreasing Raman crystallinity during the later absorber layer growth. In contrast, intrinsic layers with favorable JSC are obtained for constant and increasing Raman crystallinity profiles. Therefore, monitoring the evolution of the Raman crystallinity in-situ provides sufficient information for an optimization of the photovoltaic parameters with surpassing depth resolution.

show abstract

Transient depletion of source gases during materials processing: a case study on the plasma deposition of microcrystalline silicon

Cited by 33 publications

References 30 publications

The atomic hydrogen flux to silicon growth flux ratio during microcrystalline silicon solar cell deposition

The atomic hydrogen flux to silicon growth flux ratio during microcrystalline silicon solar cell deposition

Probing the phase composition of silicon films in situ by etch product detection

Interplay between crystallinity profiles and the performance of microcrystalline thin-film silicon solar cells studied by in-situ Raman spectroscopy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About