Material properties and growth process of microcrystalline silcion with growth rates in excess of 1 mm/s

The expanding thermal plasma (ETP) has been used to deposit microcrystalline silicon(ìc-Si:H) with rates up to 2.7 nm/s. Typical material properties of well crystallised materialare crystallite sizes of 20 nm, photo- and dark conductivity of 2x10-5 and 2x10-7 S/cmrespectively, and an activation energy of 600 meV. The radical densities of SiH3, SiH, and Sipresent in the gas phase have been quantified. In conditions where ìc-Si:H is deposited theatomic hydrogen flux towards the surface is of the same magnitude or higher as the flux ofdeposited radicals. Furthermore, the abundance of radicals such as SiH and Si is large andmay contribute several tens of percent to the deposition rate