Study of effect of SiH4 gas heating during growth of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon on SiO2 by plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition

The effect of SiH4 source gas heating on the properties of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon film grown by plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition was investigated to improve the crystallinity and inhomogeneities at the early stage of growth on an amorphous substrate such as glass. Optimization of the deposition conditions for mu c-Si:H film structure and characteristics was carried out for a film around 1000 Angstrom thickness and as a function of the cathode heating temperature T-c. The grazing incidence x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and W-visible spectroscopic ellipsometry results showed that the SiH4 gas heating significantly improved the crystallinity and inhomogeneities from the early stage of Si thin film growth at T-c > 550 degrees C and T-s of 180 degrees C condition. The role and effect of the cathode heating in the mu c-Si:H growth is discussed. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.