Study of microstructure of high stability hydrogenated amorphous silicon films by Raman scattering and infrared absorption spectroscopy

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Abstract
The microstructure, hydrogen bonding configurations and hydrogen content of high quality and stable hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films prepared by a simple “uninterrupted growth/annealing” plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique have been investigated by Raman scattering and infrared absorption spectroscopy. The high stability a-Si:H films contain small amounts of a microcrystalline phase and not less hydrogen (10–16 at. %), particularly, the clustered phase hydrogen. Besides, the hydrogen distribution is very inhomogeneous. Some of these results are substantially distinct from those of conventional device-quality a-Si:H film or stable a-Si:H films prepared by the other techniques examined to date. The stability of a-Si:H films appears to have no direct correlation with the hydrogen content or the clustered phase hydrogen concentration. The ideal a-Si:H network with high stability and low defect density is perhaps not homogeneous.