Role of microstructure in electronic transport behavior of highly crystallized undoped microcrystalline Si Films

Significant correlation is established between the observed electrical properties (room temperature value of dark conductivity and its activation energy) of the plasma deposited highly crystallized undoped hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) films with their microstrucural properties (various aspects like fractional composition of constituent grains, morphology, and crystalline orientation). The conductivity shows three distinct trends with increasing film thickness irrespective of the different deposition parameters or conditions, and these three zones are applicable to all the samples, indicating that all the samples fundamentally belong to three different microstructural classes (with distinct microstructural attributes like thickness and features of grains and conglomerates) corroborative with these three zones of electrical behavior.