In-situ Mueller matrix ellipsometry of silicon nanowires grown by plasma-enhanced vapor-liquid-solid method for radial junction solar cells

In-situ Mueller matrix spectroscopic ellipsometry was applied for monitoring the silicon nanowire growth by plasma-enhanced vapor-liquid-solid method. The technique is proposed as a real-time, non-destructive, and non-invasive characterization of the deposition process in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition reactor. The data have been taken by spectrally resolved Mueller matrix ellipsometer every 1 min during the 8–10 min long nanowire growth process. We have developed an easy-to-apply optical model to fit the experimental data, which enables to study the evolution of the parameters of the structure during initial stages of the growth. The first results provide information about the effective deposition rate determined from the linear increase of the deposited silicon volume with the deposition time.