Study of microstructure of high stability hydrogenated amorphous silicon films by Raman scattering and infrared absorption spectroscopy

The microstructure, hydrogen bonding configurations and hydrogen content of high quality and stable hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films prepared by a simple “uninterrupted growth/annealing” plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique have been investigated by Raman scattering and i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 1998-07, Vol.73 (3), p.336-338
Main Authors: Sheng, Shuran, Liao, Xianbo, Kong, Guanglin, Han, Hexiang
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The microstructure, hydrogen bonding configurations and hydrogen content of high quality and stable hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films prepared by a simple “uninterrupted growth/annealing” plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique have been investigated by Raman scattering and infrared absorption spectroscopy. The high stability a-Si:H films contain small amounts of a microcrystalline phase and not less hydrogen (10–16 at. %), particularly, the clustered phase hydrogen. Besides, the hydrogen distribution is very inhomogeneous. Some of these results are substantially distinct from those of conventional device-quality a-Si:H film or stable a-Si:H films prepared by the other techniques examined to date. The stability of a-Si:H films appears to have no direct correlation with the hydrogen content or the clustered phase hydrogen concentration. The ideal a-Si:H network with high stability and low defect density is perhaps not homogeneous.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.121826