Investigation of the vertical electrical transport in a-Si:H/nc-Si:H superlattice thin films

Abstract

Tuning the size of silicon nano-crystallites (Si-ncs) has been realized simply by controlling the thickness of the nc-Si:H sub-layer (t_nc) in the a-Si:H/nc-Si:H superlattice thin films grown by low temperature plasma processing in PE-CVD. The vertical electrical transport phenomena accomplished in superlattice films have been investigated in order to identify their effective utilization in practical device configuration. The reduced size of the Si-ncs at thinner t_nc and the associated band gap widening due to quantum confinement effects generates the Coulomb potential barrier at the a-Si/nc-Si interface which in turn obstructs the transport of charge carriers to the allowed energy states in Si-ncs, leading to the Poole–Frenkel tunneling as the prevailing charge transport mechanism in force. The advantages of the conduction process governed by the Poole–Frenkel mechanism are two-fold. The lower barrier height caused by the a-Si:H sub-layer in the superlattice than the silicon oxide sub-layer in conventional structures enhances the conduction current. Moreover, increasing trapped charges in the a-Si:H sub-layer can arbitrarily increase the current conduction. Accordingly, a-Si:H/nc-Si:H superlattice structures could provide superior electrical transport in stacked layer devices e.g., multi-junction all silicon solar cells.