Optical properties and structure of microcrystalline hydrogenated silicon prepared by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

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Abstract
We have studied the optical properties of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon films prepared by rf magnetron sputtering. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) has been used to measure the dielectric spectra in the 1.66–5.6-eV range. Films produced with substrate temperature higher than 200 °C and hydrogen partial pressure ratio equal to 0.5 exhibited a microcrystalline structure. Distinct differences were observed between such films as amorphous and microcrystalline films in their dielectric function spectra and other optical quantities. An energy shift and a broadening of the E1 and E2 transitions for the microcrystalline samples were calculated from the analysis of SE data. It was observed that the rf power and the substrate temperature were the primary factors controlling the microcrystallite formation. A strong density dependence of microcrystallinity was observed, for all the optical parameters investigated. The effect of the hydrogen concentration and the hydrogen-bonding configuration on the optical properties is also discussed.