Study of Phosphorus Doped Micro/Nano Crystalline Silicon Films Deposited by Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc Technique

• Published in: SILICON 2017-07, Vol.9 (4), p.473-481
• Main Authors: Kesarwani, Ajay Kumar, Panwar, O. S., Tripathi, R. K., Dalai, M. K., Chockalingam, Sreekumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arc deposition; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystal structure; Crystallites; Environmental Chemistry; Heterojunctions; Inorganic Chemistry; Lasers; Materials Science; Optical Devices; Optics; Original Paper; Phosphorus; Photonics; Polymer Sciences; Raman spectra; Raman spectroscopy; Room temperature; Secondary ion mass spectroscopy; Silicon; Silicon films; Spectrum analysis; Substrates; Thin films; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 1876-990X; 1876-9918
• DOI: 10.1007/s12633-014-9237-8

Phosphorus doped micro/nano crystalline silicon thin films have been deposited by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique at different substrate temperatures (T s ) ranging from room temperature (RT) to 350 ∘ C. The films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, dark conductivity ( σ D ), activation energy ( ΔE) and optical band gap (E g ). The XRD patterns show that the RT grown film is amorphous in nature but high T s (225 and 350 ∘ C) deposited films have a crystalline structure with (111) and (220) crystal orientation. The crystallite size of the higher T s grown silicon films evaluated was between 17 to 31 nm. Raman spectra reveal the amorphous nature of the film deposited at RT whereas higher T s deposited films show a higher crystalline nature. The crystalline volume fraction of the silicon film deposited at higher T s was estimated as 65.7 % and 74.4 %. The values of σ D , ΔE and E g of the silicon films deposited at different T s were found to be in the range of 8.84 x 10 −4 − 0.98 ohm −1 cm −1 , 0.06 - 0.31 eV and 1.31-1.93 eV, respectively. A n-type nc-Si/p-type c-Si heterojunction diode was fabricated which showed the diode ideality factor between 1.1 to 1.5.