Microstructures and resistivity of cuprate/manganite bilayer deposited on SrTiO 3 substrate Effect of substrate-film lattice mismatch in La 0.7 Ba 0.3 MnO 3−δ thin films for transport properties
The characteristics of nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si) embedded in Si-based dielectric matrix have been investigated extensively. However, these Si-based dielectric materials have the highly-resistive nature and difficulty in building up the built-in electric field, which limit the performances of nc-Si thin films for solar cell (SC) application. In this study, we propose to use ZnO as a new matrix material for the nc-Si thin films with better optoelectronic properties because of the unique characteristics of ZnO. We successfully demonstrate the formation of nc-Si embedded in ZnO thin films using a ZnO/Si multilayer (ML) structure by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method. From the high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images, we clearly observe the amorphous Si (a-Si) nano-clusters after deposition and high density of nano-crystalline clusters after annealing in the ZnO/Si ML structure. From atomic force microscope (AFM) images, significant variations on the surface morphologies are observed under different Si sputtering powers (PSi) after deposition. The larger surface roughness and clearer formation of a-Si nano-clusters are observed for PSi higher than 75 W. Combined with the Raman spectra and X-ray diffraction patterns, the results indicate that the sputtered Si atoms with higher PSi have more kinetic energy to aggregate together and are easier to form a-Si nano-clusters during deposition. Such morphology is helpful for the nc-Si formation and the better crystallization of the ZnO matrix during annealing. Thus, high density of nano-crystalline clusters is observed in the HRTEM images after annealing. Our experimental results show the nc-Si embedded ZnO thin film is certainly achievable, and a high conversion efficiency SC integrating nc-Si thin film with ZnO matrix can be expected.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.