Highly tunable electronic properties in plasma-synthesized B-doped microcrystalline-to-amorphous silicon nanostructure for solar cell applications

Highly controllable electronic properties (carrier mobility and conductivity) were obtained in the sophisticatedly devised, structure-controlled, boron-doped microcrystalline silicon structure. Variation of plasma parameters enabled fabrication of films with the structure ranging from a highly crystalline (89.8%) to semi-amorphous (45.4%) phase. Application of the innovative process based on custom-designed, optimized, remote inductively coupled plasma implied all advantages of the plasma-driven technique and simultaneously avoided plasma-intrinsic disadvantages associated with ion bombardment and overheating. The high degree of SiH₄, H₂ and B₂H₆ precursor dissociation ensured very high boron incorporation into the structure, thus causing intense carrier scattering. Moreover, the microcrystalline-to-amorphous phase transition triggered by the heavy incorporation of the boron dopant with increasing B₂H₆ flow was revealed, thus demonstrating a very high level of the structural control intrinsic to the process. Control over the electronic properties through variation of impurity incorporation enabled tailoring the carrier concentrations over two orders of magnitude (10¹⁸-10²⁰ cm^-3). These results could contribute to boosting the properties of solar cells by paving the way to a cheap and efficient industry-oriented technique, guaranteeing a new application niche for this new generation of nanomaterials.