Electron Energy Structure and Optical Properties of Microcrystalline Silicon

Abstract
Spectroellipsometry and electroreflectance are used to determine the dielectric functions and the direct optical transition energies in microcrystalline silicon produced by chemical vapor deposition and by recrystallization of amorphous silicon. Changes in the optical gaps depending on the average microcrystallite volume are found. These results are interpreted with a tight binding model which incorporates the virtual crystal approximation.