Microcrystal Si Films Prepared by Remote Plasma CVD

The effects of deposition temperature, rf power and hydrogen dilution ratio on the growth, structure and transport of p-type microcrystal(μc-) Si films deposited by remote plasma CVD have been investigated. While low substrate temperature and low rf power yield small grain sizes, high temperature and high rf power tend to supress the growth of grains. The etching of Si by hydrogen radicals plays an important role to grow μc-Si, but excess etching supresses the growth of crystallites. We obtained 400 A of grain size and 3.5 S/cm of room temperature conductivity for p-type μ-Si.