Stress engineering in amorphous silicon thin films

Low hole mobility severely limits the conversion efficiencies of amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells. Previously it has been proposed that carrier mobility can be improved by introducing certain types of stress into thin films. In this work we explore a range of deposition conditions allowing the formation of intrinsic stresses varying from -924 MPa compressive to 386 MPa tensile. We then discuss the origins of these stresses due to ion bombardment, presenting a model correlating our deposition parameters with our observed stress measurements. In doing so we elucidate the non-linear relationship between deposition pressure and the films intrinsic stress.