Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:31:18.574Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Correlated photoluminescence spectroscopy investigation of grain boundaries and diffusion processes in nanocrystalline and amorphous silicon (nc-Si:H) mixtures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2011

Jeremy D. Fields ,
K. G. Kiriluk ,
D. C. Bobela ,
L. Gedvilas  and
P. C. Taylor
Jeremy D. Fields
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, United States.
K. G. Kiriluk
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, United States.
D. C. Bobela
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, United States.
L. Gedvilas
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, United States.
P. C. Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, United States.
Get access

Abstract

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra obtained with correlated set of experiments investigating grain boundary characteristics and diffusion processes in nanocrystalline silicon alloys (nc-Si:H), provide insight regarding formation and passivation of electronic defects in these regions. Based upon current results and previous works we believe thermally driven processes induce a PL band centered at 0.7 eV upon thermal annealing, and most likely involve diffusion of hydrogen and oxygen near interfaces. A nc-Si:H sample set with varied crystal volume fraction, Xc, was subject to thermal annealing treatments at different temperatures – each exceeding the deposition temperature. Fourier-transform photoluminescence (FTPL) and Fourier-transform infrared absorption spectroscopy (FTIR), were employed to correlate the relative 0.7 eV defect band emergence with compositional changes indicative of Si–Hx and Si–O species, for each sample, at each temperature, respectively. Hydrogen effusion data provide additional perspective.

We find the Xc to strongly affect susceptibility of nc-Si:H to oxygen related effects. The higher the Xc, the more readily oxygen penetrates the nc-Si:H network. We attribute this relationship to elevated diffusivity of oxygen in highly crystalline nc-Si:H materials, owing to their abundance of gain boundaries and interfaces, which serve as pathways for impurity migration. These findings corroborate the expectation that oxygen impurities and diffusion processes contribute to development of microstructural features giving rise to radiative recombination through deep defects in nc-Si:H.

Keywords

defectsluminescenceSi
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1321: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology , 2011 , mrss11-1321-a08-11
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCE

1. Tajima, Michio, Journal Of Crystal Growth 103, 1–7 (1990).10.1016/0022-0248(90)90162-EGoogle Scholar
2. Ostapenko, S. S., Savchuk, A. U., Nowak, G., Lagowski, J., and Jastzebski, L., Materials Science Forum 196–201, 1897–1902 (1995).10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.196-201.1897Google Scholar
3. Merdzhanova, T., Carius, R., Klein, S., Finger, F., and Dimova-malinovska, D., Thin Solid Films 512, 394–398 (2006).10.1016/j.tsf.2005.12.114Google Scholar
4. Fields, J. D., Taylor, P. C., Radziszewski, J. G., Baker, D. A., Yue, G., and Yan, B., Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 1153, 5–10 (2009).10.1557/PROC-1153-A02-01Google Scholar
5. Fields, J. D., Taylor, P. C., Bobela, D. C., Yan, B., and Yue, G., Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 1245, 1–6 (2010).10.1557/PROC-1245-A13-01Google Scholar
6. Droz, C, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 81, 61–71 (2004).10.1016/j.solmat.2003.07.004Google Scholar
7. Bronneberg, A.C., Smets, A.H.M., Creatore, M., and van De Sanden, M.C.M., Journal Of Non-Crystalline Solids 357, 884–887 (2011).10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2010.11.001Google Scholar
8. Beyer, W., Hapke, P., and Zastrow, U., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 467, 343–348 (1997).10.1557/PROC-467-343Google Scholar
9. Kirk, C.T., Phys. Rev. B 38, 1255–1273 (1988).10.1103/PhysRevB.38.1255Google Scholar
10. Bronsveld, P. C. P., Van Der Wagt, H. J., Rath, J. K., Schropp, R. E. I., and Beyer, W., Thin Solid Films 515, 7495–7498 (2007).10.1016/j.tsf.2006.11.158Google Scholar
11. Kamei, Toshihiro, Wada, Takehito, and Matsuda, Akihisa, IEEE Conf. Proc. 784–787 (2000).Google Scholar