Temperature dependence of the surface roughness evolution during hydrogenated amorphous silicon film growth

The scaling behavior of the surface morphology of hydrogenated amorphous silicon deposited from a SiH3 dominated plasma has been studied using atomic force microscopy and in situ ellipsometry. The observed substrate temperature dependence of growth exponent β reflects a crossover behavior from random deposition at 100 °C to a surface diffusion controlled smoothening around 250 °C to full surface relaxation around 500 °C. This crossover behavior has been reproduced by Monte Carlo simulations assuming a site dependent surface diffusion process, revealing an activation energy of ∼1.0 eV for the ruling surface smoothening mechanism. The implications for a-Si:H growth are discussed.