Studies on the structural properties of SiO:H films prepared from (SiH4+CO2+He) plasma in RF-PECVD

A comprehensive report on the structural studies on SiO:H films prepared at high growth rate from He-diluted (SiH4+CO2) plasma has been presented and extraction of some intriguing ideas that deserve high relevance for the potential development of nano-crystalline hydrogenated silicon oxide (nc-SiO:H) films has been tried. Poly-hydrogenation has been found as inherent to increasing alloying of the network; however, the bonded H-content reduces linearly with the degree of oxygen incorporation, i.e., the solubility of H in the SiO:H network decreases as the O-content increases in the presence of He. This result happens to be opposite to the conventional H-2-diluted plasma condition and appears to be attractive as well. In addition, He-dilution contributes to a high growth rate of the material. Dynamic interaction of He* in the formation of activated oxygen atoms in the plasma and their efficient mobilization on the surface reaction process at the growing network induces abstraction of H from the SiHn groups and the terminal H atoms are replaced by bridging O atoms to form the SiO:H network. Abstraction of H from the network being an essential criteria for developing nanocrystallinity and it being inherent to oxygenation in Si network when prepared from He-diluted (SiH4+CO2) plasma in PECVD, the process could provide an appropriate pathway for preparing nc-SiO:H structures for solar cells, from such plasma in suitable parametric conditions. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.