Temperature improvement of the optical and electrical properties of hydrogenated nanostructured silicon thin films

Hydrogenated nanostructured silicon thin films have been deposited in a pulsed argon-silane glow discharge. The effects of both plasma duration and deposition temperature on the structural, optical and electrical film properties have been investigated. When deposited at room temperature, an increase in plasma duration from 0.1 to 1 s leads to rougher and more porous films with deteriorated optical and transport properties. When the plasma duration is chosen just before the α→γ′ plasma transition, the increase in the deposition temperature results in a spectacular improvement of the film properties above 50°C.