Glow discharge preparation of amorphous hydrogenated silicon from higher silanes

Amorphous hydrogenated silicon has been deposited by plasma decomposition of Si2H6 and Si3H8. A major feature of the process is a deposition rate enhancement of over a factor of 20 compared to monosilane. The resulting films are compositionally similar to monosilane-produced intrinsic a-Si(H), but films deposited at 300 °C substrate temperature show greater photoconductivity. On the basis of our deposition experiments and the known thermolysis chemistry of the silanes, a conjectural model for the deposition process is presented.