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Electroabsorption spectra of hydrogenated amorphous and microcrystalline silicon

Conference ·
OSTI ID:20085496

The authors report on electroabsorption spectra for plasma deposited thin films of hydrogenated silicon ranging from amorphous (a-Si:H) to microcrystalline ({micro}c-Si:H) structures. The EA spectrum of a-Si:H deposited from silane with low hydrogen dilution were consistent with previous works; material prepared with high hydrogen dilution showed a 0.07 eV blue shift of the spectrum and somewhat stronger electroabsorption. {micro}c-Si:H specimens have a sharp peak at 1.19 eV; the spectrum is blue shifted by 0.03 eV and is significantly stronger than electroabsorption reported in single crystal silicon. Spectral features which have no correspondence to single crystal silicon were also observed in {micro}c-Si:H. Specimens deposited using cyclic deposition and chemical annealing had electroabsorption spectra with both the 1.19 eV, crystalline feature and a band peaking at 2.02 eV which they attribute to strongly hydrogenated a-Si:H. They discuss applications of electroabsorption to determining the crystal fraction of microcrystalline material and to determining grain size distributions.

Research Organization:
Syracuse Univ., NY (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory; German Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung
OSTI ID:
20085496
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English