Influence of deposition temperature on amorphous structure of PECVD deposited a-Si:H thin films

The effect of deposition temperature on the structural and optical properties of amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) from silane diluted with hydrogen was under study. The series of thin films deposited at the deposition temperatures of 50 ¿ 200°C were inspected by XRD, Raman spectroscopy and UV Vis spectrophotometry. All samples were found to be amorphous with no presence of the crystalline phase. Ordered silicon hydride regions were proved by XRD. Raman measurement analysis substantiated the results received from XRD showing that with increasing deposition temperature silicon-silicon bond-angle fluctuation decreases. The optical characterization based on transmittance spectra in the visible region presented that the refractive index exhibits upward trend with increasing deposition temperature, which can be caused by the densification of the amorphous network. We found out that the scale factor of the Tauc plot increases with the deposition temperature. This behaviour can be attributed to the increasing ordering of silicon hydride regions. The Tauc band gap energy, the iso-absorption value their difference were not particularly influenced by the deposition temperature. Improvements of the microstructure of the Si amorphous network have been deduced from the analysis.