Publication Date:
2016-03-19
Description:
Thin films of homogeneous mixture of amorphous silicon and aluminum were produced with magnetron sputtering using 2-phase Al–Si targets. The films exhibited variable compositions, with and without the presence of hydrogen, aSi 1− x Al x and aSi 1− x Al x H y . The structure and optical properties of the films were investigated using transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-Vis NIR spectrometry, ellipsometry, and atomistic modeling. We studied the effect of alloying aSi with Al (within the range 0–25 at. %) on the optical band gap, refractive index, transmission, and absorption. Alloying aSi with Al resulted in a non-transparent film with a low band gap ( 1 eV. Variations of the Al and hydrogen content allowed for tuning of the optoelectronic properties. The films are stable up to a temperature of 300 °C. At this temperature, we observed Al induced crystallization of the amorphous silicon and the presence of large Al particles in a crystalline Si matrix.
Electronic ISSN:
2166-532X
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
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