Annealing Temperature Effect on Bismuth Induced Crystallization of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Thin Films

• Published in: SILICON Vol. 14; no. 5; pp. 2115 - 2125
• Main Authors: Zouini, Meriem, Ouertani, Rachid, Amlouk, Mosbah, Dimassi, Wissem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amorphous silicon; Annealing; Bismuth; Chemical vapor deposition; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystallization; Efficiency; Electrical resistivity; Environmental Chemistry; Hydrogenation; Inorganic Chemistry; Lasers; Materials Science; Metals; Optical Devices; Optics; Original Paper; Photoelectrons; Photonics; Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition; Polymer Sciences; Raman spectroscopy; Silicon films; Silicon substrates; Silicon wafers; Surface roughness; Temperature effects; Thin films; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Bismuth; Amorphous silicon; Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition; I-R thermal annealing; Metal induced crystallization; Raman spectroscopy
• ISSN: 1876-990X; 1876-9918
• DOI: 10.1007/s12633-021-01005-7

In this work, we emphasis on the Bismuth induced crystallization of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin films. 50 nm of bismuth thin films are deposited by vapor deposition on Silicon substrates. Then, bismuth covered Si substrates are coated with 100 nm thin film of a-Si: H elaborated at fixed growth conditions by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Annealing experiments were performed by IR thermal processing under N 2 atmosphere at temperature ranging from 300 to 500 °C. The effect of annealing temperature on Bismuth induced crystallization of amorphous silicon has been evaluated in terms of crystalline modes and fractions, preferential orientations, average surface roughness and atom distributions. Using X-ray diffraction, atomic force and scanning electron microcopies as well as Raman spectroscopy, the correlation between crystalline fraction and the electrical conductivity as well as X-ray photoelectron spectrometry has been made.