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Solid phase crystallization of hot-wire CVD amorphous silicon films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

David L. Young
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401
Paul Stradins
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401
Eugene Iwaniczko
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401
Bobby To
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401
Bob Reedy
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401
Yanfa Yan
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401
Howard M. Branz
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401
John Lohr
Affiliation:
DIII-D National Fusion Facility, General Atomics, 3550 General Atomics Court, San Diego, California 92121-1122
Manuel Alvarez
Affiliation:
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin, 1415 Engineering Drive Madison, WI 53706
John Booske
Affiliation:
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin, 1415 Engineering Drive Madison, WI 53706
Amy Marconnet
Affiliation:
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin, 1415 Engineering Drive Madison, WI 53706
Qi Wang
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401
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Abstract

We measure times for complete solid phase crystallization (SPC) of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films that vary eight orders of magnitude, from a few ms to a few days. The time-to-crystallization activation energy is consistent with literature values of approximately 3.4 eV but the prefactor is markedly different for hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) films than for plasma-enhanced (PE) CVD films. The crystallized films were 0.3 – 2 μm thick, and deposited by high deposition rate (10-100 Å/s) HWCVD or standard PECVD onto glass substrates. We annealed these a-Si:H films over a wide temperature range (500 to 1100 °C) using techniques including simple hot-plates and tube furnaces, rapid thermal annealing by a tungsten-halogen lamp, and microwave electromagnetic heating at 2.45 GHz (magnetron) and 110 GHz (gyrotron).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

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