Electron spin resonance study of nitrogen-doped microcrystalline silicon and amorphous silicon

The neutral silicon dangling bond (DB) defect and conduction electron properties of nitrogen-doped silicon film deposited by use of highly diluted silane gas were studied using electron spin resonance. At lower gas phase doping density, film come to have a microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) structure, and the resonance peaks of DB and conduction electron spin resonance (CESR) was observed. As intensity of CESR showed significant dependence on doping density, nitrogen was confirmed to function as an electron donor. In contrast, highly doped samples became amorphous and only the DB was detected. Although in μc-Si:H the DB peak showed little dependence on nitrogen doping density, a-Si:H film exhibited dependence on doping density in both g value and signal width.