Scaling properties of growing surfaces of microcrystalline silicon

Influence of boron doping on roughness microcrystalline silicon

“…Average deposition rates estimated from the 200-nm-thick films were in the range of 0.01-0.03 nm/s. The surface widths (rms roughness) of the lc-Si films were obtained from topographic images taken by a AFM system (SII SPA400/SPI3800N) using tapping-contact mode [12][13][14]. AFM measurements were carried out ex situ for a lc-Si film with a certain deposition time prepared on each new substrate.…”

“…With regard to undoped lc-Si films, roughness evolutions derived from atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements have been investigated in order to reveal the growth behaviors at the initial growth stage, i.e. the nucleation, coalescence, and grain growth [11][12][13][14]. Nevertheless, very little effort but for the intensive study employing real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry [4] has been carried out as for the influence of boron doping.…”

“…Moreover, the influence of boron doping on the nucleation is discussed from the result of the nucleation density deduced using fractal concepts [12][13][14].…”

Photocarrier diffusion lengths of high-growth-rate microcrystalline silicon

“…The surface widths of the lc-Si films were obtained from topographic images taken by a AFM system (SII SPA400/ SPI3800N) using tapping-contact mode [9]. Scan sizes were changed between 1 Â 1-5 Â 5 lm 2 ; the data points were 256 Â 256.…”

“…Nevertheless, the influence of grain boundary has not been revealed systematically, even associated with lowgrowth-rate lc-Si, because the grain boundary seems quite complicated due to the fractal (self-similar) structure of lc-Si [9]. In order to discuss the effects of grain boundary, the lineshape of grain boundary must be identified.…”