Electrical and Optical Properties of Oxygenated Microcrystalline Silicon (mc-Si:O:H)

Abstract

ABSTRACTHydrogenated microcrystalline silicon with oxygen(mc-Si:O:H) is grown using radio frequency glow discharge method. Oxygen is introduced during growth by varying it's partial pressure in the growth chamber. The crystalline volume fraction ‘f’ and the crystallite size ‘δ’ are found to vary with the oxygen content. Results indicate that oxygen can etch the silicon surface when present in low amount while it forms a-SiO2-x with increasing contents. Optical absorption studies in the range of 2 to 3 eV suggest that the absorption coefficient ‘α’ lies in between the values of c-Si and a-Si:H.being closer to a-Si:H. The Hall mobility measurements for these samples indicate that for optimum oxygen contents the mobility as high as 35 cm2 V-1 sec-1 can be obtained. Results on I-V characteristics for p-i-n structure are presented.