Preparation of a-Si:H Films Resistive to the Staebler-Wronski Effect

Abstract

Undoped a-Si:H films with much reduced sensitivity to the optical degradation (Staebler-Wronski effect) were prepared by the combination of conventional plasma CVD starting from pure silane and subsequent lamp annealing at 450∼500°C for 10∼15 min in nitrogen. It was observed that both the photoconductivity and the ratio of photoconductivity to dark conductivity was not appreciably degraded by the lamp annealing, indicating the absence of the unintentional doping which often appears in a-Si:H prepared by conventional plasma CVD with high substrate temperature and in µc-Si:H from highly diluted SiH₄ with H₂.