On the Effect of the Film Hydrogen Content and Deposition Type on the Grain Nucleation and Grain Growth During Crystallization of a-Si:H Films

A. H. Mahan, S. P. Ahrenkiel, B. Roy, R. E.I. Schropp, H. Li, D. S. Ginley

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

2 Scopus Citations

Abstract

We report the effect of the initial film hydrogen content (CH) on the crystallization kinetics, crystallite nucleation rate and grain growth rate when HWCVD and PECVD aSi:H films are crystallized by annealing at 600°C For the HWCVD films, both the incubation time and crystallization time decrease, and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the XRD (111) peak decreases with decreasing film CH. However, other sources of XRD line broadening exist in such materials in addition to crystallite size, including the density of crystallite defects. To address these issues, TEM measurements have also been performed on a-Si:H films deposited directly onto TEM grids. Following the procedure of Iverson and Reif (J. Appl. Phys. 62 (1987) 1675), an examination of films with low grain density enables a determination of the crystallite nucleation rate as well as grain growth rate. We compare the results for HWCVD films of different film CH, and also for HWCVD and PECVD a-Si:H films containing the same initial film CH. We also perform Raman measurements on fully crystallized HWCVD films to explore whether film disorder plays a role in the different XRD FWHMs when different amounts of film hydrogen are evolved.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages1612-1615
Number of pages4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006
Event2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC-4 - Waikoloa, HI, United States
Duration: 7 May 200612 May 2006

Conference

Conference2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC-4
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityWaikoloa, HI
Period7/05/0612/05/06

Bibliographical note

For preprint version see NREL/CP-520-39901

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-520-41308

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