Surface passivation of p-type crystalline Si by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited amorphous SiCx:H films

I. Martín*, M. Vetter, A. Orpella, J. Puigdollers, A. Cuevas, R. Alcubilla

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    128 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Excellent passivation properties of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiCx:H) films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition on single-crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers have been obtained. The dependence of the effective surface recombination velocity, Seff, on deposition temperature, total pressure and methane (CH4) to silane (SiH4) ratio has been studied for these films using lifetime measurements made with the quasi-steady-state photoconductance technique. The dependence of the effective lifetime, τeff, on the excess carrier density, Δn, has been measured and also simulated through a physical model based on Shockley-Read-Hall statistics and an insulator/ semiconductor structure with fixed charges and band bending. A Seff at the a-SiCx:H/c-Si interface lower than 30 cm s-1 was achieved with optimized deposition conditions. This passivation quality was found to be three times better than that of noncarbonated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films deposited under equivalent conditions.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2199-2201
    Number of pages3
    JournalApplied Physics Letters
    Volume79
    Issue number14
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2001

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Surface passivation of p-type crystalline Si by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited amorphous SiCx:H films'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this