Optical characterization of hydrogenated silicon thin films using interference technique

This work introduces an application of an "interference spectroscopy technique" (IST) for determination of absorption coefficient and refractive index spectra of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and related thin film materials. The technique is based on computer analysis of measurements of optical transmission and specular reflection (T & R) of thin films (including the films on substrates) over a wide range of the incident photon energies (0.5-2.8 eV) using carefully controlled spectrometer conditions. IST is used to investigate the absorption spectrum in the sub-gap energy range (0.8-1.6 eV) of intrinsic and phosphorous-doped a-Si:H, "polymorphous-Si:H," and microcrystalline silicon films. The enhanced sensitivity of the technique over conventional analysis of T & R data results from utilization of interference to obtain absorption coefficient values at the maxima of transmission. The factors limiting the accuracy of the calculated absorption coefficient are discussed in detail. Measurement on films of thickness ranging from 0.1 to 5 μm identifies that the sub-gap absorption in these films arises from the bulk rather than the surface. A set of samples prepared under widely different conditions that appear to have overlapping (α = 20 cm^-1) sub-gap absorption spectra measured using photo-thermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS), reveal significant differences (α = 10 to 100 cm^-1) using IST. Changes (factor of 2) in sub-gap absorption spectra due to light soaking are also clearly observable using IST.