Electrical Property Characterization of Plasma Sprayed Polycrystalline Silicon

Abstract

Silicon-based materials have been widely applied in industrial fields, such as microelectronic and solar power, for the specific electronic properties. In the present work, free-standing thick silicon coatings were fabricated by air plasma spraying (APS) and vacuum plasma spraying (VPS) technologies. The microstructure and electrical property of the coatings were characterized. It was found that the electrical resistance of APS-Si coating was higher than that of VPS-Si coating. The impedance spectroscopy results showed there was significant difference in impedance curves of APS-Si and VPS-Si coatings. The grain boundary semicircle appeared in the plot of VPS-Si coating, while did not appeared in that of APS-Si coating. It was thought that the electrical property difference of the two kind coatings was related with the oxidation and microstructure difference of the coatings.