Structural effect on intrinsic stress in nanocrystalline Si:H films

► Nanocrystalline Si:H films were prepared by PECVD technique. ► Intrinsic compressive film stress was revealed by Raman and curvature radius skill. ► Raman signals were well fitted by a model of strain-calibrated phonon confinement. ► The compressive stress shows intensive correlation to material structures. ► It is noted one should evaluate carefully nanomaterial's stress with Raman method.