Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin Films

最近对纳米尺寸硅晶体的有效可见发光的观察在半导体界引起了极大的兴奋。硅带隙附近的光发射通常归因于尺寸小于5nm的晶体中载流子的量子限制。该研究项目将研究等离子体增强化学气相沉积作为一种生产纳米晶硅薄膜的方法，该薄膜显示可见发光。用等离子体增强化学气相沉积法生长重掺杂微晶薄膜用于非晶硅光伏电池已经进行了多年的研究。微晶薄膜是由典型晶粒尺寸小于10nm的晶体由非晶硅基体包围而成。结果表明，去除非晶态基体后，纳米晶硅具有可见光。未掺杂，p型和n型微晶薄膜将通过等离子体增强化学气相沉积生长，随后蚀刻非晶基质，以留下纳米晶研究，第二阶段的最终目标是在玻璃基板上生产用于大面积平板显示的发光二极管。

9360138 Hollingsworth The recent observation of efficient visible luminescence form nanometer sized silicon crystallites has generated a great deal of excitement in the semiconductor community. The emission of light about the bandgap of silicon is generally attributed to quantum confinement of carriers in crystallites with dimensions less than 5nm. This research project will examine plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition as a method of producing nanocrystalline silicon thin films exhibiting visible luminescence. Heavily doped micro crystalline films grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition have been studied for many years for use in amorphous silicon photovoltaics. The micro crystalline films consist of crystals with typical grain sizes less than 10nm surrounded by an amorphous silicon matrix. It has been shown that removal of the amorphous matrix leaves nanocrystalline silicon with visible luminescence. Undoped, p, and n type micro crystalline films will be grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition with subsequent etching of the amorphous matrix to leave nanocrystalline research, with the ultimate goal in Phase II of producing light emitting diodes on glass substrated for large area flat panel display applications.