Peculiarity of constant photocurrent method for silicon films with mixed amorphous–nanocrystalline structure

The results of conductivity, photoconductivity and constant photocurrent method absorption measurements by DC and AC methods in hydrogenated silicon films with mixed amorphous–nanocrystalline structure are presented. A series of diphasic silicon films was deposited by very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique, using different hydrogen dilution ratios of silane. The increase of hydrogen dilution ratio results in five orders of magnitude increase of conductivity and a sharp increase of grain volume fraction. The comparison of the absorption spectra obtained by DC and AC methods showed that they are similar for silicon films with the predominantly amorphous structure and films with high grain volume fraction. However we found a dramatic discrepancy between the absorption spectra obtained by DC and AC constant photocurrent methods in silicon films deposited in the regime of the structure transition from amorphous to nanocrystalline state. AC constant photocurrent method gives higher absorption coefficient than DC constant photocurrent method in the photon energy range of 1.2–1.7 eV. This result indicates the possibility of crystalline grains contribution to absorption spectra measured by AC constant photocurrent method in silicon films with intermediate crystalline grain volume fraction.