Phosphorus- and boron-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon films prepared using vaporized liquid cyclopentasilane

Abstract

a b s t r a c tA simple, inexpensive method for fabricating a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) film using thermal chemical vapor deposition from cyclopentasilane (CPS) at atmospheric pressure with a substrate temperature of 370°C is described. The reactant gas was generated from liquid CPS by vaporization in the deposition chamber. The vaporized CPS gas was transformed immediately into a-Si:H film on a heated substrate. The a-Si:H films could be doped either n-or p-type by dissolving appropriate amounts of white phosphorus or decaborane, respectively, in the liquid CPS before vaporization. This process allows deposition of doped a-Si:H films of photovoltaic device-quality without the need for handling, storage, or transportation of large amounts of gaseous reactants.

Sonophotolytically Synthesized Silicon Nanoparticle‐Polymer Composite Ink from a Commercially Available Lower Silane

“…The method outlined for the preparation of the ink is easily upscalable and involves an initial processing step using sonication which results in, among other things, the production of Si‐NPs and an enhanced photoreactivity of trisilane upon subsequent irradiation with UV light. The thin films produced via both spin‐coating and APCVD possess optoelectronic properties comparable to state‐of‐the‐art material reported in the literature …”

“…For spin‐coated samples, the ink was cast on 15 × 15 mm 2 Eagle XG glass from Corning at 1500 rpm for 20 s. Intrinsic a‐Si:H layers of 80–100 nm thickness were subsequently produced by pyrolytic conversion on a hot plate at temperatures in the range 400–450 °C for 1–3 min. The APCVD samples were deposited under conditions adapted from those outlined in ref . using an inverted petri dish coated on the inside with ink and placed over the substrates.…”

“…The thin fi lms produced via both spin-coating and APCVD possess optoelectronic properties comparable to state-ofthe-art material reported in the literature. [ 33,34 ] Our group is currently working on optimizing the ink with respect to aspects such as fi nding the ideal Si-NP size and best APCVD deposition temperature. In addition, we have begun work on the synthesis of doped formulations of the ink and on the fabrication of optoelectronic devices such as thin-fi lm solar cells and transistors.…”

“…The APCVD samples were deposited under conditions adapted from those outlined in ref. [ 34 ] using an inverted petri dish coated on the inside with ink and placed over the substrates. The APCVD layers were deposited for 20 min by replenishing the petri dish with fresh ink every 2 min and reach a thickness of ≈100 nm.…”

Silicon deposition in nanopores using a liquid precursor

“…We originally developed CPS as a liquid precursor for semiconducting silicon7, and it has been used for solution processing of silicon devices8910. Moreover, vaporized CPS has been reported to be a good gas source in LVD11. LVD is a thermal-CVD method conducted under atmospheric pressure, in which liquid CPS was placed in a deposition chamber and was vaporized by heating to generate a gas source12.…”