Control of epitaxial growth at a-Si: H/c-Si heterointerface by the working pressure in PECVD

The epitaxial-Si (epi-Si) growth on the crystalline Si (c-Si) wafer could be tailored by the working pressure in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). It has been systematically confirmed that the epitaxial growth at the hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)/c-Si interface is suppressed at high pressure (hp) and occurs at low pressure (lp). The hp a-Si:H, as a purely amorphous layer, is incorporated in the lp-epi-Si/c-Si interface. We find that:(i) the epitaxial growth can also occur at a-Si:H coated c-Si wafer as long as this amorphous layer is thin enough; (ii) with the increase of the inserted hp layer thickness, lp epi-Si at the interface is suppressed, and the fraction of a-Si:H in the thin films increases and that of c-Si decreases, corresponding to the increasing minority carrier lifetime of the sample. Not only the epitaxial results, but also the quality of the thin films at hp also surpasses that at lp, leading to the longer minority carrier lifetime of the hp sample than the lp one although they have the same amorphous phase.