In-situ X-ray diffraction analysis of the crystallisation of a-SI:H films deposited by the expanding thermal plasma technique

Author

Law, F. ; Hoex, B. ; Wang, J. ; Luther, J. ; Sharma, K. ; Creatore, M. ; van de Sanden, M.C.M.

Author_Institution

Solar Energy Res. Inst. of Singapore (SERIS), Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

fYear

2011

fDate

19-24 June 2011

Abstract

The solid phase crystallization (SPC) kinetics of expanding thermal plasma (ETP) grown a-Si:H films on glass substrates was studied by means of in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD). The Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) model was used for the analysis of the SPC kinetics revealing random nucleation and 3D growth of the crystallites. The activation energy of the SPC process was found to be 2.9 eV, which is lower compared to other deposition techniques. This indicates a more stable SPC process which is more tolerant to temperature variations. Post-SPC characterization using electron backscatter diffraction showed indications of good crystal quality with average grain sizes of ~0.7-0.9 μm. Indications of homogeneous nucleation with no preferred nucleation sites were observed.

Keywords

X-ray diffraction; crystallisation; elemental semiconductors; nucleation; reaction kinetics; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov model; SPC kinetics; Si; a-SI:H films deposition; crystallisation; electron volt energy 2.9 eV; expanding thermal plasma; in-situ X-ray diffraction analysis; random nucleation; solid phase crystallization kinetics; thermal plasma technique; Films; Grain size; Plasma temperature; Silicon; Three dimensional displays; X-ray diffraction; X-ray scattering;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2011 37th IEEE

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9966-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2011.6186582

Filename

6186582