Surface roughness evolution on glow discharge a-Si:H

Abstract
In situ ellipsometry has been used to probe the evolution of surface roughness over a wide range of film thickness during the growth of glow discharge hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a‐Si:H). For a‐Si:H prepared with pure SiH4, a a‐Si:H prepared with SiH4 highly diluted in Ar, a gradual increase in the roughness layer of ∼100 Å is detected over the same film thickness range. The differences are consistent with recent proposals of different growth mechanisms for the two gas conditions.