OPTIMIZATION OF RELEVANT DEPOSITION PARAMETERS FOR HIGH-QUALITY A-SIC-H FILMS

Aim of the present work is to establish the optimum deposition conditions for a pure SiH4 + CH4 plasma in order to obtain a good quality baseline a-SiC:H material. The effects of CH4 flow, substrate temperature, and pressure on the optoelectronic properties of deposited films have been carefully studied by means of a numerical procedure which allows to study a large number of parameters with a small number of experiments. Optimized films of a-SiC:H with energy gap in the range 1.84-1.90 eV, Urbach energies below 60 meV, photoconductive gain higher than 10(6) cm(2)V(-1) and eta mu tau product higher than 8.9 x 10(-8) have been obtained.