Precise control over oxygen impurities in nano-crystalline silicon thin film processed with a low hydrogen dilution gas system at near room temperature

• Increasing neutral beam energy increase crystal fraction, decrease oxygen contamination at low hydrogen ratio.
• We found that the energetic hydrogen atoms directly react with and remove oxygen at low temperature.
• Energetic hydrogen atom is different from hydrogen enhanced oxygen diffusing model.
• NBaCVD process can achieve highly crystalized nc-Si thin film at low hydrogen and low temperature.

An atmosphere highly diluted with hydrogen is essential to increase the crystal fraction during formation of hydrogenated nano-crystalline (nc) or micro-crystalline (μc) silicon thin films via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). This hydrogen-rich process, however, hinders the ability for the material to find adequate use in micro-electronic devices due to contamination that results in oxygen-related problems such as donor-like doping, defect creation, or passivation. The use of neutral beam assisted chemical vapor deposition (NBaCVD), with a low hydrogen ratio (R = H2/SiH4) of 4, successfully deposits a highly-crystallized nc-silicon (HC nc-Si) thin film (TF) at near room temperature (<80 °C) and effectively reduces oxygen contamination by as much as 100 times when compared to conventional plasma enhanced CVD. During the formation of HC nc-Si TF via NBaCVD, energetic hydrogen atoms directly react with oxygen atoms near the surface of the nc-Si TF and remove the oxygen impurities. This is a completely different mechanism from the hydrogen-enhanced oxygen diffusion model. This technology meets the recent requirements of a high deposition rate and low temperature necessary for flexible electronics.