High Rate Deposition Of Stable Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon In Transition From Amorphous To Microcrystalline Silicon

High rate deposition of high quality and stable hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films were performed near the threshold of amorphous to microcrystalline phase transition using a very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF-PECVD) method. The effect of hydrogen dilution on optic-electronic and structural properties of these films was investigated by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman scattering and constant photocurrent method (CPM). Experiment showed that although the phase transition was much influenced by hydrogen dilution, it also strongly depended on substrate temperature, working pressure and plasma power. With optimized condition high quality and high stable a-Si:H films, which exhibit sigma(ph)/sigma(d) of 4.4x10(6) and deposition rate of 28.8Angstrom/s, have been obtained.