Study of Silicon Nanocrystals Formation in Annealed Amorphous In Situ Nitrogen Doped Silicon Thin Films Obtained by Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition

In this work, we investigate the formation of silicon nanocrystals in annealed low pressure chemical vapor deposition in situ nitrogen doped silicon thin films (SiN x ) obtained at low temperature (465 • C) by using a mixture of disilane (Si 2 H 6 ) and ammonia (NH 3 ).Results show that nitrogen content in films plays an important role in defining the obtained films morphology in terms of crystallites sizes and their distribution.Indeed, according to the nitrogen content introduced in films, the crystalline state of films varies from a submicron crystalline structure to a nanocrystalline structure.An average silicon nanocrystalline size of 10 nm was obtained for film with x = 0.07 nitrogen content, annealed under a temperature of 850 • C during 2 h.