Amorphous/microcrystalline transition of thick silicon film deposited by PECVD

Thick silicon films were deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at different plasma power densities. Annealing treatment was performed on these deposited films. As-deposited and annealed films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman scattering spectroscopy and reflectance spectroscopy. Before annealing, only the film deposited at the plasma power density of 500 mW/cm2 exhibits a diffraction peak corresponding to the (111) plane orientation. Raman spectrum of this film confirms the presence of crystalline phase. After annealing, a transition from amorphous phase to crystalline one occurs for all samples. This transition is accompanied by an increase of the crystalline fraction volume deduced from Raman spectra analysis and by a reduction of optical gap energy.