Study of boron doped amorphous silicon lightly hydrogenated prepared by DC magnetron sputtering for infrared detectors applications

Abstract The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of boron doping concentration on the bolometric properties of lightly hydrogenated amorphous silicon doped with boron (a-Si: H(B)) films. Thin film a-Si: H(B) samples with different boron concentrations are prepared by co-sputtering of boron and silicon at relatively low hydrogen pressure. FTIR analyses show that the intensity of the characteristic peak of the substitutional boron gradually increases with the addition of boron. Increasing in boron concentration affects the bolometric properties of the lightly hydrogenated a-Si: H (B) films, including conductivity at room temperature (σRT) and thermal resistance coefficient (TCR). Indeed, when the boron concentration increases from 1.5 to 43%, σRT increases from 1.4 10-6 to 2 10-3 Ω-1 cm-1 while the absolute value of TCR decreases from 3% to 8% K-1, respectively. In addition, lightly hydrogenated a-Si: H (B) films exhibit good thermal stability. We have showed in this study that lightly hydrogenated a-Si: H(B) can be considered as a potential candidate for low-cost, high-performance uncooled micro bolometers.