Investigations on phosphorus doped amorphous/nanocrystalline silicon films deposited by a filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique in the presence of hydrogen gas

Phosphorus doped amorphous/nanocrystalline silicon (a-Si:H/nc-Si:H) thin films have been deposited by a filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique in the presence of hydrogen gas at different substrate temperatures (T-s) ranging from room temperature (RT) to 350 degrees C. The films have been characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, dark conductivity (sigma(D)), activation energy (Delta E), optical band gap (E-g) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The XRD patterns show that RI grown film is amorphous in nature but high temperature (225 and 350 degrees C) deposited films exhibit nanocrystalline structure with (111) and (220) crystal orientations. The crystallite size of higher temperature grown silicon film evaluated was between 13 and 25 nm. Raman spectra reveal the amorphous nature of the film deposited at RI, whereas higher temperature deposited films show crystalline nature. The crystalline volume fraction of the silicon film deposited at higher temperatures (225 and 350 degrees C) was estimated to be 58 and 72%. With the increase of T-s, the bonding configuration changes from mono-hydride to di-hydride as revealed by the FIR spectra. The values of sigma(D), Delta E and E-g of silicon films deposited at different T-s were found to be in the range of 5.37 x 10(-4) - 1.04 Omega(-1) cm(-1), 0.05-0.45 eV and 1.42-1.83 eV, respectively. Photoconduction of 3.5% has also been observed in n-type nc-Si:H films with the response and recovery times of 9 and 12 s, respectively. A n-type nc-Si:H/p-type c-Si heterojunction diode was fabricated which showed the diode quality factor between 1.6 and 1.8. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.