Investigation of the amorphous to nanocrystalline phase transition at the deposition of silicon films in an ECWR plasma of pure SiH{sub 4}
- Univ. of Kaiserslautern (Germany)
A novel plasma based chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique employing electron cyclotron wave resonance (ECWR) for plasma excitation was applied to the deposition of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) films. nc-Si:H films were produced at deposition rates up to 8{angstrom}/sec (T{sub S} = 200 C) with a pure SiH{sub 4} plasma in contrast to the conventional glow discharge technique where the high hydrogen dilution usually needed leads to considerable lower deposition rates. The amorphous-to-nanocrystalline phase transition was investigated in dependence of substrate temperature, the hf-power and magnetic field mandatory for ECWR, and SiH{sub 4}-flow into the plasma. With the knowledge of the plasma parameters derived from single probe measurements, and the intensities of excited plasma species detected by means of optical emission spectroscopy the authors can qualitatively describe the silane-plasma dissociation behavior. The nanocrystalline phase is found to be always deposited when the dissociation degree of the SiH{sub 4} plasma is almost saturated.
- OSTI ID:
- 527668
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960401--; ISBN 1-55899-323-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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