Polycrystalline silicon films deposited in a glow discharge at temperatures below 250 °C

Raman scattering, x-ray diffraction and electron diffraction results show that thin films of silicon (ranging in thickness from a few hundred Å to 1 μm) prepared by chemical transport in low-pressure hydrogen plasma at a temperature between 230 and 280 °C and a deposition rate of up to ∼0.5 Å sec−1, are polycrystalline. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopic data indicate crystallite sizes amounting to a few hundred Å.