Hydrogen plasma treatments for passivation of amorphous-crystalline silicon-heterojunctions on surfaces promoting epitaxy
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Institute of Silicon Photovoltaics, Kekulestrasse 5, D-12489 Berlin (Germany)
- School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia)
The impact of post-deposition hydrogen plasma treatment (HPT) on passivation in amorphous/crystalline silicon (a-Si:H/c-Si) interfaces is investigated. Combining low temperature a-Si:H deposition and successive HPT, a high minority carrier lifetime >8 ms is achieved on c-Si <100>, which is otherwise prone to epitaxial growth and thus inferior passivation. It is shown that the passivation improvement stems from diffusion of hydrogen atoms to the heterointerface and subsequent dangling bond passivation. Concomitantly, the a-Si:H hydrogen density increases, leading to band gap widening and void formation, while the film disorder is not increased. Thus, HPT allows for a-Si:H band gap and a-Si:H/c-Si band offset engineering.
- OSTI ID:
- 22162811
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2013 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
AMORPHOUS STATE
CARRIER LIFETIME
DEPOSITION
DIFFUSION
ENERGY GAP
FILMS
HETEROJUNCTIONS
HYDROGEN
INTERFACES
LAYERS
PASSIVATION
PLASMA
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON
SOLIDS
SURFACES
VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY