Metal Induced Growth of Si Thin Films and NiSi Nanowires

Abstract

Thin film silicon has many useful purposes. Among the applications are solar cells and thin film transistors. This project involves a new and potentially lower cost method to produce thin silicon films. The method is called metal induced growth (MIG). A thin catalyst metal layer deposited on a foreign low cost substrate serves as the basis for growth of a nanocrystalline silicon thin film with thickness of 5-10 microns and preferred orientation of (220). The silicon deposition by magnetron sputtering on the heated substrate resulted in columnar structured grains having a diameter up to about 0.5 microns. Schottky barrier solar cells fabricated on these films gave a photocurrent of about 5 mA/sq cm and open circuit voltage of 0.25 volts. A modified process gave NiSi crystalline nanowires with length up to 10 microns and diameter of about 50 nm.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 25, 2010
Accession Number
ADA517029

Entities

People

  • Peter Mersich
  • Wayne A. Anderson

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Catalysts
  • Cells
  • Crystal Structure
  • Crystals
  • Electron Microscopy
  • Films
  • Grain Size
  • Latent Heat
  • Materials
  • Nanowires
  • Physical Properties
  • Solar Cells
  • Solar Energy
  • Thickness
  • Thin Film Transistors
  • Thin Films
  • Transistors

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology
  • Thin Film Deposition Science.