Deposition temperature dependence of the sputtered nanocrystalline silicon thin films on Teflon substrates deposited by RF magnetron sputtering method

Nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin films were deposited on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, teflon) substrates using RF magnetron sputtering. The aim of this study was to study the physical and structural properties of nc-Si on the Teflon substrate. The thin films properties were examined by Raman spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). We found that at room temperature, the deposited thin film was amorphous, however, crystallization started to occur when the substrate was heated, resulting that the deposited thin films are nc-Si thin films. The film thickness and the deposition rate increased with substrate temperature except for the room temperature deposition. The grains seemed to be more dense for the deposition at higher temperature compared to the lower temperature.