Progress in Plasma Processing of Materials, 1999

ISBN Print: 1-56700-126-2

FAST DEPOSITION OF DEVICE QUALITY HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS SILICON BY AN EXPANDING THERMAL PLASMA

DOI: 10.1615/ITPPC-1998.1270
pages 869-875

Аннотация

A technique for fast deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon is presented, based on the creation of a thermal argon or argon-hydrogen plasma in a cascaded arc and the expansion of this plasma in a low pressure reactor where it dissociates admixed silane. The creation of the plasma, the downstream reactions between reactive species emanating the source and silane as well as the species contributing to film growth are described for varying hydrogen admixtures in the arc. It is shown that significant hydrogen admixture is necessary to obtain device quality material most probably because the deposition is then dominated by SiH3-radicals. The corresponding growth rate is 10 nm/s.