Hydrogen-plasma-induced Rapid, Low-Temperature Crystallization of μm-thick a-Si:H Films

Being a low-cost, mass-production-compatible route to attain crystalline silicon, post-deposition crystallization of amorphous silicon has received intensive research interest. Here we report a low-temperature (300 °C), rapid (crystallization rate of ~17 nm/min) means of a-Si:H crystallization based on high-density hydrogen plasma. A model integrating the three processes of hydrogen insertion, etching, and diffusion, which jointly determined the hydrogenation depth of the excess hydrogen into the treated micrometer thick a-Si:H, is proposed to elucidate the hydrogenation depth evolution and the crystallization mechanism. The effective temperature deduced from the hydrogen diffusion coefficient is far beyond the substrate temperature of 300 °C, which implies additional driving forces for crystallization, i.e., the chemical annealing/plasma heating and the high plasma sheath electric field. The features of LFICP (low-frequency inductively coupled plasma) and LFICP-grown a-Si:H are also briefly discussed to reveal the underlying mechanism of rapid crystallization at low temperatures.