Rf glow discharge deposition of nanostructured silicon films: Solid state versus gaz phase reactions

Nanostructured silicon thin films have been produced by two different methods: i) rf glow discharge decomposition of silane-hydrogen mixtures under conditions of nanoparticles formation, and ii) modification of an a-Si:H film by a hydrogen plasma in a layer-by-layer process. The comparison of the optical properties of both types of films suggests that a similar film structure can be obtained by these methods.