Investigation of meta- and in-stability effects in hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon thin films by the steady-state measurement methods

Metastability effects because of atmospheric exposure, high purity gasses, and deionized water in hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon thin films with different crystalline volume fractions were studied using well accepted steady-state characterization methods of dark conductivity, steady-state photoconductivity, steady-state photocarrier grating (SSPG) and dual beam photoconductivity (DBP) methods. A standard measurement procedure has been established before using the steady state methods, in which a steady state condition of dark conductivity was established by monitoring the time dependence of dark conductivity. Samples deposited on smooth glass and rough glass substrates exhibit similar reversible and irreversible changes in the properties of microcrystalline silicon film. A reliable correlation of reversible and irreversible changes indicate that dark conductivity and photoconductivity values increase, sub-bandgap absorption spectrum obtained from DBP method decrease and correspondingly minority carrier diffusion lengths obtained from the SSPG method increase in the metastable state in various amount for microcrystalline films with crystalline volume fraction, I-C(RS) > 0.30. Amorphous silicon and microcrystalline silicon films with I-C(RS) < 0.30 do not show detectable metastable changes as samples exposed to atmospheric condition as well as high purity oxygen gas and deionized water.