Crystalline silicon films grown by pulsed dc magnetron sputtering

Pulsed dc magnetron sputtering is used as a novel method for the deposition of crystalline silicon films on glass substrates. Hydrogen-free polycrystalline Si-films are deposited with high deposition rates at temperatures of 400–450 °C and pulse frequencies f in the range 0–250 kHz. Strong preferential (1 0 0) orientation of the crystallites is observed with increasing f. High frequency and similarly high negative substrate bias cause an increase of the Ar content and an enhancement of structural disorder. Measurements of the transient floating potential suggest that the observed structural effects are related to bombardment of the growing film by Ar+ ions of high energy.