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Transition from Amorphous to Crystalline Silicon: Effect of Hydrogen on Film Growth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

C. C. Tsai ,
R. Thompson ,
C. Doland ,
F. A. Ponce ,
G. B. Anderson  and
B. Wacker
C. C. Tsai
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
R. Thompson
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
C. Doland
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
F. A. Ponce
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
G. B. Anderson
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
B. Wacker
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
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Abstract

The transition from amorphous to crystalline silicon in films prepared in a hydrogen-diluted silane plasma has been studied. Emphasis was placed on the role played by hydrogen during film growth. Hydrogen is found to govern the film formation process by promoting the reverse process, ‘etching’. By preferentially eliminating energetically unfavorable configurations during the film growth, hydrogen controls the atomic structure, hydrogen incorporation, and grain growth of the film. It affects the total hydrogen content in the film, as well as the way hydrogen is bonded to the silicon. Excessive hydrogen dilution, however, reduces the grain size by changing the columnar grain growth to a more spherical-like grain growth, and eventually eliminates film growth. With appropriate hydrogen dilution, plasma deposition was found to yield ‘polycrystalline’ silicon films which has a large distribution of grain sizes, with the largest grains being about 2000 Å.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 118: Symposium E – Amorphous Silicon Technology , 1988 , 49
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1988

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References

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