Effect of deposition rate on the growth mechanism of microcrystalline silicon thin films using very high frequency PECVD

摘要： The intrinsic microcrystalline silicon thin films were deposited by very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF-PECVD). Two series of films with different deposition rate 0.30 nm/s and 1.94 nm/s were prepared. The film surface and gas phase reaction growth processes were monitored with real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry and optical emission spectroscopy. The effect of deposition rate on the microcrystalline silicon thin film growth mechanism has been studied. The microcrystalline silicon surface growth was analyzed with KPZ model. The results show that the growth exponent of β is 0.448 for the films with low deposition rate, and the growth exponent of β is 0.302 for the films with high deposition rate. The growth exponent does not increase with deposition rate, but declines. And the reasons for this phenomenon were explained.