Hall Mobility in Chemically Deposited Polycrystalline Silicon

Abstract

Hall‐mobility measurements have been performed on polycrystalline silicon films deposited on a silicon oxide surface by the thermal decomposition of silane. Samples with doping impurities added during deposition or by diffusion from a doped vapor‐deposited oxide showed similar behavior. For both n‐type and p‐type samples approximately 5 μ thick, the mobility reached a maximum value of about 40 cm²/V sec at a free carrier concentration of about 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and decreased for both higher and lower carrier concentrations. The observed Hall mobility was generally higher in p‐type samples than in n‐type samples. The decrease in observed mobility with decreasing carrier concentration is attributed to the effects of high resistivity space‐charge regions surrounding grain boundaries in the polycrystalline material. The mobility was seen to increase as the film thickness increased for samples with similar doping, indicating a more ordered structure in thicker films.