Passivation of structured p-type silicon interfaces: Effect of surface morphology and wet-chemical pre-treatment

The effect of both surface morphology and wet-chemical pre-treatment on electronic surface and interface properties was investigated for mono- and polycrystalline silicon substrates with special surface structures. Surface charge, energetic distribution, and density of rechargeable states on these surfaces were determined by surface photovoltage (SPV) measurements. These results were correlated to previously reported findings on atomically flat Si(111) and Si(100) surfaces of monocrystalline wafers. In this paper, a specially optimised sequence of cleaning, wet-chemical oxidation, and oxide removal procedures is described in detail for the first time. This method was successfully applied in order to remove contaminations and damaged surface layers and to obtain atomically flat areas on substrates with evenly distributed atomic steps, polycrystalline and monocrystalline substrates with randomly distributed pyramids. A significant reduction in surface micro-roughness, interface state density, and recombination loss was achieved. Using passivation by wet-chemical oxidation or H-termination, respectively, the optimised surface state can be preserved by the time of following preparation steps and during subsequent a-Si:H plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD).