Structural Variation and Its Influence on the 1/f Noise of a-Si1−xRux Thin Films Embedded with Nanocrystals**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No 61421002, and the China Scholarship Council under Grant No 201506070075.

Abstract

The structural variation and its influence on the 1/f noise of a-Si1−xRux thin films are investigated by Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and low frequency noise measurement. The Ru atoms are introduced into the amorphous silicon thin films by rf magnetron co-sputtering. Ru2Si nanocrystals are found in the as-deposited samples. It is shown that the 1/f noise of the films can be reduced by a slight doping with Ru atoms. Moreover, both the microstructure and the 1/f noise performance of a-Si1−xRux thin films could be improved through a high-temperature annealing treatment.