Mechanism of the growth of microcrystalline silicon

We studied the behavior of hydrogen atoms bonded to Si in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a‐Si:H) films prepared by layer by layer deposition technique, in which deposition of a few tens of a‐Si:H film and hydrogen radical exposure on the surface are done alternatively, with variations of each layer thickness and the exposure time to hydrogen radicals. With increasing the exposure time, the hydrogen atoms are incorporated until reaching a saturation, and then out‐diffused by forming molecular hydrogen. In this process, the microcrystalline structure is formed.