Fast chemical vapor deposition of microcrystalline silicon by applying magnetic field to hollow electrode enhanced radio frequency glow plasma

Fast chemical vapor deposition of microcrystalline silicon by applying magnetic field to hollow electrode enhanced radio frequency (rf) glow plasma has been investigated. We have already developed a plasma generation technique called hollow electrode enhanced rf glow plasma transportation (HEEPT). In this study, we equipped a HEEPT system with a hollow cylinder shaped permanent magnet around an orifice prepared at the center of the counter electrode. The plasma was characterized by plasma emission spectroscopy. Silicon thin films were deposited on a glass substrate. It was found that increasing the magnetic flux density resulted in increasing plasma emission intensity, film deposition rate, and crystallinity. The maximum deposition rate of 6.9 nm/s was achieved with high crystallinity and photo-sensitivity at a plasma excitation frequency of 13.56 MHz, a substrate temperature of 300 °C and a magnetic flux density of 75 mT. Our results indicate that the magnetic field is effective in promoting fast chemical vapor deposition of microcrystalline silicon thin films with photo-sensitivity using the HEEPT technique. We consider that the effectiveness is due to a decrease of electron temperature caused by drift motion of electrons in the magnetic field inside the orifice.