Title :
Correlation between improved stability and microstructural properties of a-Si:H and a-Ge:H
Author :
Haage, T. ; Bauer, S. ; Schröder, B. ; Oechsner, H.
Author_Institution :
Fachbereich Phys. & Forschungsschwerpunkt Mater., Kaiserslautern Univ., Germany
Abstract :
In this paper we report on comparative investigations concerning the stability of glow discharge and hot wire deposited a-Si:H films. Using spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements and a data interpretation based on a tetrahedron model we investigated the microstructural properties of the films. We found that the stability of a-Si:H films is significantly increased by a deposition process guided in a way that high quality material can be grown with high density and low hydrogen content. The a-Si:H results are confirmed by similar results obtained on sp-a-Ge:H. For the first time we have shown that metastability is not connected with the existence of surface like (SiH2, (SiH)x) hydrogen bonding configurations
Keywords :
amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; ellipsometry; germanium; hydrogen; metastable states; plasma deposited coatings; semiconductor growth; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; spectroscopy; stability; Ge:H; Si:H; a-Ge:H; a-Si:H; data interpretation; glow discharge deposited films; high density; high quality material; hot wire deposited films; low hydrogen content; metastability; microstructural properties; spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements; stability; tetrahedron model; Degradation; Ellipsometry; Glow discharges; Hydrogen; Metastasis; Microstructure; Semiconductor films; Spectroscopy; Stability; Wire;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Waikoloa, HI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1460-3
DOI :
10.1109/WCPEC.1994.519990
