Pulsed electron beam annealing of sputtered amorphous Si:H films

Abstract

Amorphous hydrogenated silicon layers have been deposited on silicon single crystals by d.c. sputtering and annealed using the pulsed electron beam technique. The regrowth of the film and the argon concentration have been investigated using MeV channeled He + Rutherford Backscattering. The redistribution of hydrogen has been determined by B 11 induced nuclear reactions. An epitaxial regrowth is observed for fluences in excess of 1 J/cm 2 but a high level of disorder remains. Argon and hydrogen are seen to outdiffuse from the regrowth layer but some amounts still remain trapped in the disorder layer.