Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of A-Si:H from Disilane Cole Petersburg Iowa State University
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2007 Low pressure chemical vapor deposition of a-Si:H from disilane Cole Petersburg Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Electrical and Electronics Commons, and the Materials Science and Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Petersburg, Cole, "Low pressure chemical vapor deposition of a-Si:H from disilane" (2007). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 14557. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/14557 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Low pressure chemical vapor deposition of a-Si:H from disilane by Cole Petersburg A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Major: Electrical Engineering Program of Study Committee: Vikram Dalal, Major Professor Kristen Constant Santosh Pandey Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2007 Copyright c Cole Petersburg, 2007. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 1443091 UMI Microform 1443091 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES . iv LIST OF FIGURES . v CHAPTER 1 Introduction . 1 Background . 2 Desirable Properties . 3 Growth Methods . 6 Growth Model . 6 Observable Behavior . 8 Literature Review . 10 Early Work . 10 Chemistry . 11 Growth Rates and Recent Work . 14 Growth Rate Pressure Dependence . 16 Surface Hydrogen . 17 Microstructure . 17 Diagram of References . 18 Research Objective . 18 CHAPTER 2 Experimental Methods . 21 Gaseous Precursors . 21 LPCVD Reactor Design . 21 Reactor Design, Hot-Wall Conditions . 23 Reactor Design, Cold-Wall Conditions . 23 iii Equipment Calibrations . 24 Sample Fabrication . 26 Hot-Wall Experiments . 28 Cold-Wall Experiments . 28 Sample Preparation . 29 Depletion under Static Conditions . 31 Material Characterization . 32 CHAPTER 3 Results . 36 Calibration Results . 36 Hot-Wall Temperature Calibrations . 37 Cold-Wall Temperature Calibrations . 38 Qualitative Observations . 39 Boron Doped Samples . 42 Hot-Wall Experiments . 42 Cold-wall Experiments . 43 Disilane Diluted in Hydrogen . 44 Growth Rates . 45 Microstructure . 48 Pure Disilane . 50 Hot-Wall . 50 Cold-Wall . 54 CHAPTER 4 Conclusions . 63 Future Work . 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 65 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 70 iv LIST OF TABLES 1.1 Experimental Parameters, Physical Constants . 2 1.2 Silicon Hydrides . 12 1.3 Literature Values . 16 3.1 Conditions Leading to Dust from Pure Disilane, 74 sccm . 41 3.2 Power Law Fit Curves for 10% disilane with and without diborane . 46 3.3 Arrhenius Parameters . 51 3.4 Electronic Properties, Hot-Wall, Pure Disilane . 55 3.5 Pressure dependencies under hot-wall and cold-wall conditions . 56 3.6 Photoconductivity Ratios of cold-wall samples grown at 8 Torr . 58 v LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Band Diagram of a p-i-n Photovoltaic Cell, from [1] . 3 1.2 Transition state of an insertion reaction . 13 1.3 Effect of Diborane on Growth Rates, from [2] . 15 1.4 Diagram of References . 19 2.1 Reactor 3 . 22 2.2 Hot-wall CVD Reactor . 23 2.3 Cartridge-type Substrate Heater . 24 2.4 Example of a Flow Calibration with reactor volume known from hydro- gen calibration . 25 2.5 Interference Fringes for Thickness Determination . 33 2.6 Tauc’s Plot for determination of Tauc’s Band Gap . 34 3.1 Effect of Flow Rate with Pure Disilane . 37 3.2 Effect of Substrate Position with Pure Disilane . 38 3.3 ∆T as a function of Pressure . 39 3.4 ∆T as a function of Setpoint Temperature . 40 3.5 ∆T as a function of Setpoint Temperature, 7059 substrate . 41 3.6 ∆T as a function of Setpoint Temperature, 7059 substrate . 42 3.7 ∆T as a function of Pressure, 7059 substrate . 43 3.8 ∆T as a function of Setpoint Temperature, Stainless Steel Substrate . 44 3.9 Growth Rates at 485◦C Follow a Power Law until 0.5 Torr; depletion occurs at 0.7 Torr and 21 sccm . 45 vi 3.10 Tauc’s Gap shows little dependence on deposition pressure at 485◦C . 46 3.11 Growth Rates follow an Arrhenius dependence with an Arrhenius pa- rameter of 0.83 eV . 46 3.12 Growth rates of films grown with diborane follow a weaker Arrhenius dependence; large amounts of diborane have no additional effect (from [2]) . 47 3.13 Growth Rates follow a power law of the same order regardless of boron doping. The order of the reaction is seen to change with temperature. 47 3.14 Raman peak at 480 cm−1 indicating amorphous structure . 48 3.15 Raman peak at 480 cm−1 indicating amorphous structure . 48 3.16 Raman peak at 480 cm−1 indicating amorphous structure . 49 3.17 Pressure Dependence for Pure Disilane . 50 3.18 Growth Rates follow an Arrhenius dependence, but with a much higher slope. 51 3.19 Growth rates from pure disilane are not ten times the rate from 10% disilane in hydrogen . 52 3.20 Maximum transmittance . 53 3.21 Tauc’s Bandgap and the E04 energy . 53 3.22 Urbach Plots, Hot-Wall with Pure Disilane at 450◦C . 54 3.23 Urbach Plots, Hot-Wall with Pure Disilane at 475◦C . 55 3.24 Depletion in a Static Reactor . 56 3.25 For pure disilane, growth rates follow similar power laws in hot-wall (475, 500◦C) and cold-wall conditions (476◦C) . 57 3.26 Growth Rate Arrhenius Plot for pure disilane indicating an Arrhenius parameter of 1.98 eV . 58 3.27 Tauc’s Gap with Depletion, Pure Disilane . 59 3.28 Tauc’s Gap with Depletion and Pure Disilane, showing no trend . 59 3.29 Tauc’s Band Gap versus Deposition Temperature, showing no trend . 60 vii 3.30 Infrared Optical Density . 60 3.31 Infrared absorbance at 2000 cm−1, and none at 2090 cm−1 . 61 3.32 Infrared Optical Density . 61 3.33 Urbach plots at very different pressures and growth rates have similar Urbach energies of 75 meV . 62 3.34 Urbach plots from cold-wall samples show little variation with temper- ature . 62 1 CHAPTER 1 Introduction Hydrogenated amorphous silicon, or a-Si:H, is a useful, convenient, and cheap material for use in thin-film photovoltaics. By depositing only microns of silicon, cost and energy can be conserved with the added benefit of allowing for mechanical flexibility. The dominant method of silicon thin-film deposition has long been PECVD, or plasma- enhanced chemical vapor deposition, originally known as the RF glow discharge process. Re- cently, Powerfilm, Inc. has been producing thin film amorphous silicon solar cells by this method on a roll-to-roll process.[3] This is made possible because PECVD does not require substrate temperatures above the glass transition temperature of polyimide polymer. NASA has worked to raise the glass transition temperature of polyimide resins to 414◦C. [4] Another material that is sensitive to deposition temperature is aluminum, which is found both in microelectronic and photovoltaic processes. In addition to maintaining the temper- ature below aluminum’s melting point, as well as the aluminum-silicon eutectic temperature of 577◦C,[5] the deposition temperature should also remain below 450◦C to limit diffusion.[6] It.