Study on Impurity Diffusion in Glow-Discharged Amorphous Silicon

Abstract

The diffusion of impurities in glow-discharged hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) films with various hydrogen contents is studied experimentally taking boron and antimony as examples of impurities. Similar impurity diffusion in hydro-fluorinated amorphous silicon (a-Si: F: H) films is also studied for comparison. It is found that the diffusion constant of impurities in a-Si: H depends only weakly on the impurity itself and is equal to the diffusion constant of hydrogen, and that the impurity diffusion is suppressed in a-Si: F: H film.