Preparation and Characterization of Reactively-Sputtered Amorphous Si: H Films

Abstract

Amorphous Si: H films have been prepared by reactive sputtering of crystalline Si in Ar–H 2 mixture, under various deposition conditions of substrate temperature and H 2 concentration in sputtering gas, and their optical, structural and electronic properties have been mapped out for the first time. The obtained data have been compared with those of glow discharge a-Si: H film and discussed in a unified manner. It has been demonstrated that bonded H content, Si–H bond configuration, Ar content involved in the film and thermal history are main factors affecting optical and electronic properties. The H content associated with SiH as well as that with SiH 2 has been calculated as a function of total H content assuming Poisson distribution, which has been compared with the experimental data.