A Comparative Study of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Films Prepared by RF Sputtering in He/H2, Ar/H2 and Xe/H2 Mixtures

MRS Online Proceedings Library volume 70, pages59–63(1986)Cite this article

Abstract

Preliminary results of a comparative study of some optical and ESR properties of aSi:H films prepared by rf sputtering on a cold substrate in 10 mtorr of either He, Ar, or Xe and 0.5 mtorr H2 are presented. In all cases the concentration of Si-H and Si-H2 bonds, the optical gap and the dangling bond spin density all generally increase as the rf power is decreased from 3.3 to 0.27 W/cm2. However, whereas the optical energy gap of He/H2 sputtered films ranges from 1.26 eV to 2.13 eV, the gap of Ar/H2 and Xe/H2 films sputtered under these conditions only changes from 1.54 to 1.94 and 1.41 to 1.71 eV, respectively. The dangling bond spin densities are lowest (∼1017 cm−3) in the Ar/H2 sputtered films at high rf power and highest (∼5×1018 cm−3) in Xe/H2 sputtered films at low power.

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Affiliations

  1. Ames Laboratory-USDOE and Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, 50011, USA

    Mark L. Albers, H. R. Shanks & J. Shinar

Authors
  1. Mark L. Albers
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  2. H. R. Shanks
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  3. J. Shinar
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Correspondence to Mark L. Albers.

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Albers, M.L., Shanks, H.R. & Shinar, J. A Comparative Study of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Films Prepared by RF Sputtering in He/H2, Ar/H2 and Xe/H2 Mixtures. MRS Online Proceedings Library 70, 59–63 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-70-59

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