Proton NMR studies of PECVD hydrogenated amorphous silicon films and HWCVD hydrogenated amorphous silicon films

This dissertation discusses a new understanding of the internal structure of hydrogenated amorphous silicon.; Recent research in our group has included nuclear spin echo double resonance (SEDOR) measurements on device quality hydrogenated amorphous silicon photovoltaic films. Using the SEDOR pulse sequence with and without the perturbing 29Si pulse, we obtain Fourier transform spectra for film at 80K that allows us to distinguish between molecular hydrogen and hydrogen bonded to silicon. Using such an approach, we have demonstrated that high quality a-Si:H films produced by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) from SiH 4 contains about ten atomic percent hydrogen, nearly 40% of which is molecular hydrogen, individually trapped in the amorphous equivalent of tetragonal sites (T-sites).; The main objective of this dissertation is to examine the difference between a-Si:H made by PECVD techniques and a-Si:H made by Hot Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition (HWCVD) techniques. Proton NMR and 1H- 29Si SEDOR NMR are used to examine the hydrogen structure of HWCVD a-Si:H films prepared at the University of Utrecht and at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Past NMR studies have shown that high quality PECVD a-Si:H films have geometries in which 40% of the contained hydrogen is present as H2 molecules individually trapped in the amorphous equivalent of T-sites. A much smaller H2 fraction sometimes is physisorbed on internal surfaces. In this dissertation, similar NMR methods are used to perform structural studies of the two HWCVD aSi:H samples. The 3kHz resonance line from T-site-trapped H2 molecules shows a hole-burn behavior similar to that found for PECVD a-Si:H films as does the 24kHz FWHM line from clustered hydrogen bonded to silicon.; Radio frequency hole-burning is a tool to distinguish between inhomogenous and homogeneous broadening. In the hole-burn experiments, the 3kHz FWHM resonance line from T-site-trapped H2 molecules shows a hole-burn behavior similar to that found for PECVD a-Si:H films as does the 24kHz FWHM line from clustered hydrogen bonded to silicon. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...