Tin induced crystallisation of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films

Abstract

The present article focuses on the effect of annealing temperatures about the Sn induced crystallisation of hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) thin films, which are used to fabricate polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) film. The a-Si:H thin films are coated onto Sn metal thin film and subsequently annealed from various temperatures. These are crystallised by annealing for 1 h at 300°C and identified by XRD spectroscopy for the investigation of each phase. Process temperature for crystallisation should not be high because a eutectic temperature of Si–Sn is ∼232°C. Si crystal patterns of the prepared samples showed the tendency of changing from (111) to (002) with increasing temperature. It indicates that the crystal phases depend strongly on the annealing temperature of Sn induced a-Si:H thin films for the preparation of poly-Si film. Semiconducting type of Sn induced poly-Si films were shown in n-type through Hall effect measurement.