Growth mechanisms and characterization of hydrogenated amorphous-silicon-alloy films. Final subcontract report, 15 February 1991--14 April 1994

摘要

This report describes work performed to better understand the atomic-scale structure of glow-discharge-produced a-Si:H, a-Ge:H, and a-Si:Ge:H films; its effect on film quality; and its dependence on deposition discharge conditions. Hydrogenated a-Si films are from a silane rf discharge onto atomically flat crystal Si and GaAs substrates. The substrates are then transferred in a scanning tunneling microscope, where the atomic-scale surface morphology is measured. The films were deposited using device-quality deposition conditions; IR absorption, (sigma)(sub L), and (sigma)(sub D) indicate high-quality intrinsic films. From the thickness dependence of the surface morphology, we determined that the films initially conform smoothly to an atomically flat Si or GaAs substrate, but as the thickness increases the roughness steadily increases to approximately 10% of the length of the scanned region. The surface of 100--400-nm-thick films is highly inhomogeneous, with steep hills and canyons in some areas and large atomically smooth regions in others. These unexpectedly large surface irregularities indicate severe and often connected void structures in the growing film, as well as relatively limited-range surface diffusion of the incorporating SiH(sub 3) radicals. On the other hand, large atomically flat surface were occasionally found, indicating the possibility of growing a homogeneous and compact amorphous film if appropriate growth conditions could be discovered.