High rate growth of preferentially orientated crystalline silicon films by ECR plasma CVD

This work reports on the growth of (311) preferentially orientated polycrystalline silicon films on glass surfaces (oxidised Si wafers) at relatively high growth rates of /spl sim/65 nm/min and temperatures below 600/spl deg/C. The films have been deposited from silane-hydrogen mixtures using the technique of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD). Films ranging in thickness up to /spl sim/9 /spl mu/m have been deposited. Polycrystalline growth with a columnar microstructure develops after an initial amorphous incubation region of thickness /spl sim/1 /spl mu/m. This incubation region can be remediated by the use of thin (/spl sim/few 100 nm) microcrystalline Si (/spl mu/c-Si) seeding layers. Both directly grown and excimer laser crystallised seed layers have been investigated. The films are electrically active as demonstrated by simple p-i-n structures achieving open circuit voltages of up to /spl sim/400 mV.