Hostname: page-component-5cf477f64f-zrtmk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-03T12:25:51.670Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Effect of Substrate Temperature on a-Si:H Deposition Using an Expanding Thermal Plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

R. J. Severens ,
M. C. M. Van De Sanden ,
H. J. M. Verhoeven ,
J. Bastiaanssen  and
D. C. Schram
R. J. Severens
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
M. C. M. Van De Sanden
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
H. J. M. Verhoeven
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
J. Bastiaanssen
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
D. C. Schram
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
Get access

Abstract

Fast (7 nm/s) deposition of amorphous hydrogenated silicon with a midgap density of states less than 1016 cm-3 and an Urbach energy of 50 meV has been achieved using a remote argon/hydrogen plasma. The plasma is generated in a dc thermal arc (0.5 bar, 5 kW) and expands into a low pressure chamber (20 Pa) thus creating a plasma jet with a typical flow velocity of 103 m/s. Pure silane is injected into the jet immediately after the nozzle, in a typical flow mixture of Ar:H2:SiH4=55:10:10 scc/s. As the electron temperature in the recombining plasma is low (typ. 0.3 eV), silane radicals are thought to be produced mainly by hydrogen abstraction.

Material quality in terms of refractive index, conductivity, microstructure parameter and optical bandgap was found to increase monotonously with substrate temperature, even up to 350 °C; for practically all low growth rate deposition schemes an optimum around 250 °C is observed. It will be argued that this behavior is consistent with a simple kinetic model involving physisorption and hopping, growth on dangling bonds and thermal desorption of hydrogen.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 420: Symposium A – Amorphous Silicon Technology-1996 , 1996 , 341
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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

1. Vanecek, M., Nelson, B.P., Mahan, A.H., Crandall, R.S.,J.Non-Cryst.Solids 137&138,191 (1991)Google Scholar
2. Suzuki, A., Toyoshima, Y., McElheny, P.J., Matsuda, A., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 30, L790 (1991)Google Scholar
3. Naito, N., Takano, A., Sumiya, M., Kawasaki, M. and Koinuma, H., Appl. Phys. Lett. 66 (9) 1071 (1995)Google Scholar
4. Finger, F., Kroll, U., Viret, V., Shah, A., Beyer, W., Tang, X.-M., Weber, J., Howling, A. and Hollenstein, Ch., J. Appl. Phys. 71 (11) 5665 (1992)Google Scholar
5. Johnson, N.M., Santos, P.V., Nebel, C.E., Jackson, W.B., Street, R.A., Stevens, K.S. and Walker, J., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 137&138, 235 (1991)Google Scholar
6. Parsons, G.N., Tsu, D.V. and Lucovsky, G., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 97&98, 1375 (1987)Google Scholar
7. Liang, Y.H., Maley, N. and Abelson, J.R., J. Appl. Phys. 75 (7) 3704 (1994)Google Scholar
8. Vanecek, M., Mahan, A.H., Nelson, B.P. and Crandall, R.S., Proc. 11 th E.C. Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, Montreux, Switzerland, 96 (1992)Google Scholar
9. Shirafuji, T., Yoshimoto, M., Fuyuki, T., Matsunami, H., Solar Energy Mat. 23, 256 (1991)Google Scholar
10. Scott, B.A., Reimer, J.A. and Longeway, P.A., J. Appl. Phys. 54 (12) 6853 (1983)Google Scholar
11. Severens, R.J., Brussaard, G.J.H., Verhoeven, H.J.M., van de Sanden, M.C.M. and Schram, D.C., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 377, 33 (1995)Google Scholar
12. Langford, A.A., Fleet, M.L., Nelson, B.P., Lanford, W.A. and Maley, N., Phys. Rev. B 45 (23) 13367 (1992)Google Scholar
13. Ganguly, G. and Matsuda, A., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 164–166, 31 (1993); Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 31, L1269 (1992); Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 258, (1992)Google Scholar
14. Gallagher, A., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 70, 3 (1986)Google Scholar
15. Perrin, J., Takeda, Y., Hirano, N., Takeuchi, Y. and Matsuda, A., Surface Science 210, 114 (1989)Google Scholar
16. Toyoshima, Y., Arai, K., Matsuda, A., Tanaka, K., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 137&138, 765 (1991)Google Scholar
17. Matsuda, A., Nomoto, K., Takeuchi, Y., Suzuki, A., Yuuki, A. and Perrin, J., Surface Science 227, 50 (1990)Google Scholar