Aluminium-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon films deposited by DC

Applied Surface Science 257 (2011) 9689–9693

Aluminium-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering on glasses

F. Kezzoula a,b,∗ , A. Hammouda c,d,e , M. Kechouane d , P. Simon c,e , S.E.H.

Abaidia b , A. Keffous a , R. Cherfi d , H. Menari a , A. Manseri a

a UDTS 2Bd Frantz Fanon 7 merveilles Algiers, Algeria

b Laboratory of Materials, Mineral and Composite (LMMC), Boumerdes University, Algeria c UPR CNRS 3079 CEMHTI – 1D Avenue de la Recherche Scientifique, 45071 Orléans Cedex 2,

France

d Equipe Couches Minces, Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, Faculté de Physique, USTHB, Algiers, Algeria

e Université d’Orléans, 45067 Orléans Cedex 2, France

Abstract

Amorphous silicon (a-Si) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering technique with argon and hydrogen plasma mixture on Al deposited by ther- mal evaporation on glass substrates. The a-Si/Al and a-Si:H/Al thin films were annealed at different temperatures ranging from 250 to 550 ◦C during 4 h in vacuum- sealed bulb. The effects of annealing temperature on optical, structural and morphological properties of as-grown as well as the vacuum- annealed a- Si/Al and a-Si:H/Al thin films are presented in this contribution. The averaged transmittance of a-Si:H/Al film increases upon increasing the annealing temperature. XRD measurements clearly evi-dence that crystallization is initiated at 450°C. The number and intensity of diffraction peaks appearing in the diffraction patterns are more important in a-Si:H/Al than that in a-Si/Al layers. Results show that a-Si:H films deposited on Al/glass crystallize above 450 ◦ C and present better crystallization than the a- Si layers. The presence of hydrogen induces an improvement of structural properties of poly-Si prepared by aluminium-induced crystallization (AIC).

Keywords: Crystallization; Thin films; Hydrogenated amorphous silicon;

AIC; Raman; XRD.

∗ Corresponding author :

UDTS, Algiers, Tel.: +213 21 43 35 11; Fax: +213 21 43 24 88.

E-mail adress: [email protected] (F.Kezzoula).