Title:	Influence of Carbon Content on the Crystallisation Process of Silicon-Carbon Alloy Films
Author(s):	G. Ambrosone, D.K. Basa, U. Coscia, P. Rava, M. Tucci
Keywords:	Annealing, Silicon-Carbon Alloys, Crystallisation, Crystallization
Topic:	Thin Films
Subtopic:	Amorphous and Microcrystalline Silicon
Event:	23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, 1-5 September 2008, Valencia, Spain
Session:	3AV.1.42
Pages:	2305 - 2308
ISBN:	3-936338-24-8
Paper DOI:	10.4229/23rdEUPVSEC2008-3AV.1.42
Price:	0,00 EUR
Document(s):	paper

Abstract/Summary:

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Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon carbon alloy films deposited at low substrate temperature is a promising material for solar cells and opto-electronic device applications. The influence of carbon content on the crystallization process has been investigated for the hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon carbon alloy films prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technique using silane methane gas mixture highly diluted in hydrogen as well as for the excimer laser annealed hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbon alloy films deposited by PECVD from silane methane gas mixture diluted by helium. The study has demonstrated clearly that the increase in the carbon content prevents the crystallisation process in the hydrogen diluted samples while the crystallisation process is enhanced in the laser annealing of amorphous samples because of the increase in the absorbed laser energy density that occurs for the amorphous films with increasing carbon content. This, in turn, facilitates the crystallization for the laser annealed samples with higher carbon content, resulting in the formation of SiC crystallites along with Si crystallites.