Reliable characterization of microcrystalline silicon films for thin film transistor applications

Despite many years of research on microcrystalline silicon films, these materials have not yet found industrial application as thin film transistors. We discuss difficulties in their accurate characterization and compare the advantages and disadvantages of commonly used characterization techniques. Our results show that no single technique provides a complete characterization of these films, and that a combination of techniques is required for a detailed and reliable picture of the film microstructure. Nevertheless, in the case of optimized films, most of the information on the film microstructure can be derived from spectroscopic ellipsometry alone.