EFFECT OF POWER AND PRESSURE ON THE PROPERTIES OF HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON FILMS PREPARED BY DC GLOW-DISCHARGE

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon films prepared at different rates of deposition up to 18 angstrom s-1, on the anode of a DC glow discharge reactor have been studied for their optoelectronic properties. In this system, use of earthed shield to confine the plasma has been utilised and one does not need to use any ''grid'', as has previously been found necessary to deposit device quality film on insulating substrates. Films are grown at three pressure regimes, i.e. 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0 Torr without any dilution of silane and, it is found, that the best quality films at high rates can only be obtained at almost-equal-to 0.5 Torr silane pressure in this system (sigma(ph)/sigma(D) almost-equal-to 10(5) and E0 values 54.8 meV at 13 angstrom s-1).