Abstract
B-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films with various doping concentrations were prepared by a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique. After thermal annealing, the as-deposited samples, B-doped silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs), were obtained in the films. The electronic properties of B-doped Si NC films with various doping concentrations combined with the microstructural characterization were investigated. A significant improvement of Hall mobility rising to the maximum of 17.8 cm2/V·s was achieved in the Si NC film after B doping, which is due to the reduction of grain boundary (GB) scattering in the B-doped samples. With increasing the doping concentration, it was interesting to find that a metal-insulator transition (MIT) took place in the B-doped Si NC films with high doping concentrations. The different carrier transport properties in the B-doped Si NC films with various doping concentrations were investigated and further discussed with emphasis on the scattering mechanisms in the transport process.
Highlights
Si nanocrystals (Si NCs) have attracted more and more interest in recent years because of their possible applications in many kinds of nanoelectronic and optoelectronic devices such as light emitter devices, thin-film solar cells, photodetectors, and synaptic devices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Raman spectroscopy was utilized to investigate the change of microstructures in the B-doped silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) films with various doping concentrations
It is found that Xc, which is about 85% for the undoped sample, decreases to 80% after B doping
Summary
Si nanocrystals (Si NCs) have attracted more and more interest in recent years because of their possible applications in many kinds of nanoelectronic and optoelectronic devices such as light emitter devices, thin-film solar cells, photodetectors, and synaptic devices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. A comparable study on the carrier transport properties in doped Si NCs is still lacking. It could be found that very high room temperature conductivities were achieved both in Si NC films after B and P doping, which demonstrates that doping is an effective way to improve the electronic properties of Si NCs for device applications [23]. The carrier transport properties in B-doped Si NC films with various doping concentrations were investigated via the temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements. A significant improvement of Hall mobility was still achieved after B doping due to the reduction of barrier height of GBs in the films, which can be well described by the previously proposed model. The different carrier transport properties together with scattering mechanisms in the transport process in the B-doped samples with various doping concentrations were investigated and discussed
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