Abstract
Recent progress in in situ ellipsometry has been introduced and its application to the growth monitoring of hydrogenated crystalline silicon (Si: H) by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) from SiH4 or SiH2Cl2 diluted in H2 has been discussed. The initial stage of Si: H growth was studied as functions of the duration, substrate temperature, Ts, substrate bias and the concentration of the B2H6 impurity doping. The deposition studies of Si: H on various kinds of substrates showed that 3-dimensional cross-linking and relaxation of the Si network near the growing surface was es-sential for the formation of Si: H. The surface roughness during the growth of Si: H strongly influenced on the creation of the crystallite phase and the relaxation of the Si network. In addition, it is suggested that the deposition proceeds conformally up to several tens of angstroms and subsequently nucleation takes place in the initial stage of growth on an atomically flat hydrogen-terminated c-Si(111) surface through in situ monitoring by ellipsometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) observation.
