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Stable Amorphous Silicon and Improved Microcrystalline Silicon by Photon-Assisted Electron Cyclotron Resonance Chemical Vapor Deposition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Young J. Song  and
Wayne A. Anderson
Young J. Song
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Buffalo, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Amherst, NY 14260
Wayne A. Anderson
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Buffalo, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Amherst, NY 14260
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Abstract

Amorphous (a-Si) and microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si) are widely used in photovoltaics and thin film transistors. These products suffer from instability and less than desired electrical properties. We have utilized photon-assisted electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (PA-ECRCVD) resulting in great improvement in both areas. For example, PA-ECRCVD compared with conventional ECR-CVD gives carrier lifetime of 1.35 4ts compared to 0.17 μs, and photovoltaic solar cell efficiency of 10 % compared to 5.9 %. Moreover, the PAECRCVD cell only degraded to 9.8 % compared to the ECR-CVD cell degradation to 5.5 %, under long term exposure to tungsten lamp illumination. In addition, PA-ECRCVD gives much enhanced crystallinity in μc-Si as revealed by atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 557: Symposium A – Amorphous and Heterogeneous Silicon Thin Films—Fundamentals to Devices—1999 , 1999 , 49
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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