Ultra high amorphous silicon passivation quality of crystalline silicon surface using in-situ post-deposition treatments

A parametric study of post-deposition hydrogen plasma treatment of intrinsic a:Si:H films is performed. We demonstrate a significant improvement in passivation of c-Si(100) promoting epitaxy after an in-situ hydrogen plasma treatment depending mainly on the pressure and slightly on the power. Plasma diagnostic indicates an increase of Hα* signal with high power and low pressure. However, our analysis reveals a better hydrogen incorporation with high pressure and a slight increase in monohydride with high power. Longer H2 plasma duration up to 50 s shows no detrimental effect on the passivation quality. Optimizing the in-situ H2 plasma treatment, high minority carrier lifetime over 15 ms was achieved after short thermal annealing. (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)