Surface passivation of crystalline silicon by intrinsic a-Si:H films deposited in remote low frequency inductively coupled plasma

Abstract

Intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films was prepared in remote low-frequency inductively coupled plasma chemical vapour deposition (ICP-CVD) system for surface passivation on single crystalline silicon (c-Si). The influences of deposition temperature and precursor gas flow rate on the physical properties of a-Si:H thin films and the passivation effect of a-Si:H/c-Si interfaces were investigated. High quality a-Si:H thin films with less vacancies and defects were fabricated in remote ICP-CVD by eliminating the direct impacting of energetic plasma radicals on deposition surface. The passivation performance on c-Si were also improved in remote ICP-CVD, a minority carrier lifetime ~2.32 × 10−3 s was achieved by fabricating 10 nm a-Si:H passivation layer on c-Si substrate.