Deposition of microcrystalline silicon in an integrated distributed electron cyclotron resonance PECVD reactor

The deposition of mu c-Si in a low pressure high density plasma reactor is studied. Films were deposited either from pure silane or from the mixture of SiH4 and H-2 onto glass substrates and deposition kinetics followed with kinetic phase modulated ellipsometry Growth rates of up to 0.8 nm/s were achieved with good quality material. Crystalline fraction shows a strong dependence on process pressure and exceeds 80% for samples grown at optimal conditions. It is found that hydrogen dilution is not needed for integrated distributed electron cyclotron resonance (IDECR) discharge to produce crystallized material. The grain size measured with X-ray diffraction was found to be between 10 and 15 nm and of single (1 1 1) orientation. Both ellipsometric data and Raman analysis show a strong dependence of crystallinity or hydrogen residence time in the reactor. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.