No abstract

Poly-silicon films have been prepared by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) from hydrogen diluted silane gas at a low temperature (430 °C). The optical gap of the poly-silicon films is 1.1 eV, though with a higher optical absorption than c-Si. The grains have a preferential orientation (220) perpendicular to the substrate with an average crystallite size of 70 nm. The crystalline volume fraction is 95% with complete coalescence of grains. Large structures up to 0.5 μm could be observed in the AFM micrograph. The activation energy (0.54 eV) and the low carrier concentration (1011 cm−3) indicate a fully intrinsic nature of the films. The μτ product of carriers is 7.1×10−7 cm2V−1 whereas the ambipolar diffusion length (LD) is 334 nm. The excellent photo-conductive properties are attributed to the low (∼1017 cm−3) defect density. The HWCVD poly-silicon films showed a very small temperature dependence of mobility, indicating negligible trapping of carriers at the grain boundaries. Preliminary n-i-p cells incorporating poly-silicon i-layer yielded 3.15 % efficiency.