Preparation of B-doped micorcrystalline silicon thin films by RF magnetron sputtering

Boron-doped microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si:H) with various film thicknesses were prepared by radio-frequency (15.56MHz) magnetron sputtering, and their structure and electrical conductivity were investigated. Although a heavily-doped silicon wafer was used as a target, the conductivity of the resulting films was 10(-6) Scm(-1), which is almost the same as that of undoped mu c-Si:H thin film. The conductivity of films prepared with boron grains on the silicon wafer target was higher than 100 Scm(-1) for film thickness above 50 nm. These findings indicate that setting boron grains on silicon wafer target makes it easy to prepare boron-doped pc-Si:H thin films with high conductivity.