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Increasing The Dark Conductivity Activation Energy in Undoped Microcrystalline Silicon by Post-Growth Anneals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

Jong-Hwan Yoon*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, College of Natural Sciences, Kangwon National University, Chunchon, Kangwon-do 200-701, KOREA
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Abstract

Undoped µc-Si:H film of the strong n-type character with the dark conductivity activation energy of about 0.28 eV was annealed. Annealing was carried out by slowly increasing the temperature from 25 °C to 450 °C at a constant rate of 12 °C/min (one annealing cycle). Annealing effects were monitored by measuring the changes in dark conductivity, oxygen and hydrogen concentrations, and photoluminescence (PL). Dark conductivity activation energy gradually increases with increasing the number of annealing cycles to a saturation value of about 0.6 eV. There is little or no change in the oxygen concentration, but the hydrogen concentration decreases with increasing the number of annealing cycles. The PL band near 1.2 eV disappears with annealing, while the low energy PL band near 0.85 eV dominates rather as the number of annealing cycles increases. A possible explanation will be discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

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References

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