Preparation and Characterization of Reactively-Sputtered Amorphous Si: H Films

Amorphous Si: H films have been prepared by reactive sputtering of crystalline Si in Ar–H2 mixture, under various deposition conditions of substrate temperature and H2 concentration in sputtering gas, and their optical, structural and electronic properties have been mapped out for the first time. The obtained data have been compared with those of glow discharge a-Si: H film and discussed in a unified manner. It has been demonstrated that bonded H content, Si–H bond configuration, Ar content involved in the film and thermal history are main factors affecting optical and electronic properties. The H content associated with SiH as well as that with SiH2 has been calculated as a function of total H content assuming Poisson distribution, which has been compared with the experimental data. </jats:p