Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
Hydrogenated amorphous SiC:H films prepared by rf glow discharge from a silane-methane mixture have been B-doped either from diborane or from trimethyl boron (TMB). In the latter a higher hydrogen content is found explaining a higher Tauc optical gap EG, however also a lower dark conductivity for the same boron concentration in the film. Thus the figure of merit of our p-layers doped from TMB is not improved. Further the observed narrowing of the Tauc gap could not be correlated with a decrease of the hydrogen content at high B-doping. The reduction of EG is mainly explained by a drastic broadening of the absorption edge caused by creation of boron induced defects and structural disorder but not due to a shift of the absorption edge.