Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T04:45:27.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effect of grain alignment on lateral carrier transport in aligned-crystalline silicon films on polycrystalline substrates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Woong Choi ,
Alp T. Findikoglu ,
Manuel J. Romero  and
Mowafak Al-Jassim
Woong Choi
Affiliation:
Materials Physics and Applications Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
Alp T. Findikoglu*
Affiliation:
Materials Physics and Applications Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
Manuel J. Romero
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401
Mowafak Al-Jassim
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401
*
b) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

We report the studies on the effect of grain alignment on lateral carrier transport in nominally 〈001〉-oriented aligned-crystalline silicon (ACSi) films on polycrystalline substrates. With improving grain alignment, energy barrier height at the grain boundaries was reduced from 150 to less than 1 meV, and both conductivity and Hall mobility became less sensitive to hydrogen passivation. This suggests that the dangling bonds in ACSi films are a major source of trapping sites, and that they become less dominant with improving grain alignment. These results demonstrate that improving grain alignment enhances the lateral carrier transport in small-grained (≤1 μm) polycrystalline silicon films, by reducing dangling bond density at the grain boundaries.

Keywords

Grain boundariesIon-beam assisted depositionSi
Type
Rapid Communications
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , April 2007 , pp. 821 - 825
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1Brotherton, S.D.: Polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors. Semicond. Sci. Technol. 10, 721 (1995).Google Scholar
2Shah, A., Torres, P., Tscharner, R., Wyrsch, N., and Keppner, H.: Photovoltaic technology: The case for thin-film solar cells. Science 285, 692 (1999).Google Scholar
3Seto, J.Y.W.: Electrical properties of polycrystalline silicon films. J. Appl. Phys. 46, 5247 (1975).Google Scholar
4Findikoglu, A.T., Choi, W., Matias, V., Holesinger, T.G., Jia, Q.X., and Peterson, D.E.: Well-oriented silicon thin films with high carrier mobility on polycrystalline substrates. Adv. Mater. 17, 1527 (2005).Google Scholar
5Choi, W., Matias, V., Lee, J.K., and Findikoglu, A.T.: Dependence of carrier mobility on grain mosaic spread in <001>-oriented Si films grown on polycrystalline substrates. Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 152104 (2005).Google Scholar
6Christmann, K., Ertl, G., and Pignet, T.: Adsorption of hydrogen on a Pt (111) surface. Surf. Sci. 54, 365 (1976).Google Scholar
7Kamins, T.: Polycrystalline Silicon for Integrated Circuits and Displays, 2nd ed. (Kluwer, Boston, 1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8Romero, M.J., Jiang, C.S., Noufi, R., and Al-Jassim, M.: Lateral electron transport in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 investigated by electro-assisted scanning tunneling microscopy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 172106 (2005).Google Scholar
9Levinson, J., Shepherd, F.R., Scanlon, P.J., Westwood, W.D., Este, G., and Rider, M.: Conductivity behavior in polycrystalline semiconductor thin film transistors. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 1193 (1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Kazmerski, L.L., Berry, W.B., and Allen, C.W.: Role of defects in determining the electrical properties of CdS thin films. I. Grain boundaries and surfaces. J. Appl. Phys. 43, 3515 (1972).Google Scholar
11Seager, C.H.: Grain boundaries in polycrystalline silicon. Ann. Rev. Mater. Sci. 15, 271 (1985).Google Scholar
12Arora, N.D., Hauser, J.R., and Roulston, D.J.: Electron and hole mobilities in silicon as a function of concentration and temperature. IEEE Trans. Electr. Devices ED-29, 292 (1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar