Phosphorus- and boron-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon films prepared using vaporized liquid cyclopentasilane

A simple, inexpensive method for fabricating a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) film using thermal chemical vapor deposition from cyclopentasilane (CPS) at atmospheric pressure with a substrate temperature of 370 degrees C is described. The reactant gas was generated from liquid CPS by vaporization in the deposition chamber. The vaporized CPS gas was transformed immediately into a-Si: H film on a heated substrate. The a-Si: H films could be doped either n- or p-type by dissolving appropriate amounts of white phosphorus or decaborane, respectively, in the liquid CPS before vaporization. This process allows deposition of doped a-Si: H films of photovoltaic device-quality without the need for handling, storage, or transportation of large amounts of gaseous reactants. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.