SPECTA Journal of Technology, Vol. X, No.

X, Month Year
ISSN : 2549-2713

CHARACTERIZATION OF OPTICAL AND ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF

HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS CARBIDE SILICON THIN LAYER (a-SiC:H)
USING PLASMA ENHANCED CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION (PECVD)
Fatimata Elfa Aulina1, Darminto2, Sulistijono3, Dian M.S.4
1
Prodi Fisika, Jurusan Sains, Teknologi Pangan dan Kemaritiman, Institut Teknologi Kalimantan, Balikpapan.
Email:elvaaulina@gmail.com
2
Jurusan Fisika, Fakultas Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember.
Email: darminto@its.ac.id
3
Prodi Material dan Metalurgi, Jurusan Ilmu Kebumian dan Lingkungan, Institut Teknologi Kalimantan. Email:
ssulistijono@mat-eng.its.ac.id
4
Prodi Fisika, Jurusan Sains, Teknologi Pangan dan Kemaritiman, Institut Teknologi Kalimantan, Balikpapan.
Email:dianms@itk.ac.id

Abstract

An intrinsic (i-type) layer of hydrogenated amorphous carbide silicon (a-SiC:H) and i-type standard layer of
hydrogenated amorphous silicon has been grown on the surface of ITO glass using Plasma Enhanced Chemical
Vapor Deposition (PECVD). The type of precursor gas used for deposition process are methane gas (CH4),
silane (SiH4), and hydrogen (H2). For a-SiC:H layer the variety of methane gas flow rate are 20 dan 40 sccm,
however for a-Si:H is 2,5 sccm. Furthermore, the effect of this variety of methane gas flow rate will be identified
to their electronic and optical properties such as the conductivity, transmittance and absorbance. The
characterization methods are supported by UV-Vis Spectrometer and Four Point Probe circuit. For the result, the
conductivity of i-type a-SiC:H increased for the higher methane flow rate. However, the transmittance for i-type
a-SiC:H decreased along with the higher methane flow rate, and the absorption coefficient have the range from
104 until 107.

Keywords: band gap, conductivity ,i-type a-SiC:H, PECVD.

Abstrak

Lapisan silikon karbida amorf terhidrogenasi (a-SiC:H) tipe-i (intrinsik) dan silikon amorf terhidrogenasi (a-
Si:H) tipe-i standar telah ditumbuhkan diatas permukaan kaca ITO menggunakan metode Plasma Enhanced
Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD). Jenis gas prekursor untuk proses deposisi adalah gas metan (CH4),
silan (SiH4), dan hidrogen (H2). Pada a-SiC:H variasi laju alir gas metan adalah sebesar 20 dan 40 sccm
sedangkan pada a-Si:H sebesar 2,5 sccm. Selanjutnya, diidentifikasi pengaruh laju gas metan terhadap sifat
elektronik dan optik yaitu berupa konduktivitas dan transmitansi serta absorbsinya. Karakterisasi didukung
dengan Spektrometer UV-Vis, dan rangkaian Four Point Probe. Pada hasil akhir, didapatkan nilai konduktivitas
listrik, lapisan tipe-i a-SiC:H menunjukkan kenaikan pada laju alir gas metan yang meningkat. Sedangkan besar
transmitansi pada lapisan a-SiC:H tipe i menurun seiring dengan naiknya laju gas metan, serta koefisien
absorpsi () yang diperoleh memiliki orde 104 hingga 107.

Kata Kunci: a-SiC:H tipe-i, celah pita energi, konduktivitas listrik, PECVD.

1. Introduction

Amorphous silicon material for solar cell has became an interest for researchers because of their
low fabrication cost compared with crystal silicon solar cell. By controlling the valence of
semiconductor material, the way to create it to be a photovoltaic (PV) device like solar cell will
opened. One of the type of amorphous silicon material that have been developed substantially is
hydrogenated amorphous silicon or a-Si:H[5]. However, the efficiency of this kind of material is still
around 13,4%, this value is still low compared with the efficiency of crystal silicon (c-Si) and some
other solar cell material. The cause of this case is known to be the high contents of hydrogen and the
silicon-hydrogen bond which is easily to broke with the impact of high irradiation that assumed to

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 SPECTA Journal of Technology, Vol. X, No. X, Month Year
ISSN : 2549-2713

leave the defects inside its material[1]. This a-Si:H material can be doped with other elements such as
Carbon (C) so that, now this material is called hydrogenated amorphous carbide silicon (a-SiC:H).
This carbon element is generated with deposition by methane gas (CH4). The add of carbon element is
assumed to cause the wide increase of the band gap so that will raise its electrical voltage. The flow
rate of methane gas can be varied to set the concentration of Carbon and Silicon elements.
Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) is the developing technique of using
plasma for deposition. The deposition process with PECVD start with a few reaction from precursor
gas (like silane and methane) that will dissociated to create a neutral radical which consists of negative
and positive ions and also electrons, so that plasma is formed. Then, the positive ions will head to the
cathode and the negative ions will head to anode, after that the reaction from the surface of the
substrate that will formed the sub-surface[6].
The intrinsic silicon layer (i-type) is called an active layer of solar cells. This type is a pure type or
without impurities. In pin junction this intrinsic layer is inserted between the p-type and n-type. The
doping method of this amorphous silicon can lead to the appearance of the defect called dangling bond
that much higher compared to intrinsic type. The too concise of diffusion length will cause the p-n
junction doesnt work well. So that is why this intrinsic layer necessarily made to enhance the contact
area for p-type and n-type. This intrinsic layer is also contribute on the excitation of electron. The
stability and efficiency of a-Si:H based solar cell is also influenced by the quality of i-type material.
The purposed quality is related to the proper determination of the deposition parameter using
PECVD[4]. Electrical conductivity () of intrinsic semiconductor is related to the electron mobilty (e)
and also hole mobility (h) that can be expressed by

(1)
Equation 1. showed that the conductivity is depend on the concentration of intrinsic charge carrier [3].
The research about a-SiC:H i-type thin layer deposition using PECVD (Plasma Enhanced
Chemical Vapor Deposition) system has been done plentifully, one is by Chen et.al that shown the
relation between the flow rate of methane gas and silane gas towards the microstructure and optical
properties of thin layer, such as molecular bonding, refraction index, wide of the band gap, and also
the deposition rate. However, the information about the influence of methane gas towards the
electrical conductivity, transmittance and absorbtion has not been revealed. One of the parameter that
often used to be attention among using PECVD system is the flow rate of gas. This variable can be
varied due to analyze the formed properties in every change [2].

2. Methods

This kind of study is done inside LPPM ITS, Laboratory of Energy and give the growth of three layers
on ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) glass with the 10x10 cm2 size, they are two i-type a-SiC:H (hydrogenated
amorphous carbide silicon) layers and one i-type a-Si:H (hydrogenated amorphous silicon) layer. The
deposition parameter in the PECVD system is done by following all the values in the Table 1.

Table 1. The deposition parameter value of intrinsic layer and standard intrinsic layer.
Variation Value
Variables
Substrate 1 Substrate 2 Substrate 3
Flow rate of Silane 20 sccm 20 sccm 2,5 sccm
Flow rate of Methane 20 sccm 40 sccm -
Flow rate of Hydrogen - - 40 sccm
Substrate Temperature 270 OC
Deposition duration 30 minutes
Pressure of the chamber 530 mTorr
RF Power 10 Watt

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 SPECTA Journal of Technology, Vol. X, No. X, Month Year
ISSN : 2549-2713

After deposition, both layers have been analyzed for their optical properties such as transmittance and
absorption coefficient, however, for the electronic properties is the electrical conductivity. This
conductivity resulted from using four point probe methods. The sample that have been screwed for
1x1 cm2 size are applied with carbon conductive paint that has a function as electrode to flow the
current through the probe. This following equation used for counductivity.

=
(2)

with is the length between two probes, I is the current, A is the area dan is the voltage
value. While, the absorbtion coefficient () is obtained by using this following equation:

/100
= ln
(3)

with T is the percentage of transmittance and d is the thickness of the deposited layer that in this case
the thickness that have been obtained are 135 nm for a-SiC:H layer with methane flow rate 20 sccm,
180 nm for a-SiC:H layer with methane flow rate 40 sccm and 60 nm for i-type standard a-Si:H.

3. Result and discussion

The result from the characterization using Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) are in the form of the relation
between the wavelength (nm) and the percentage of transmittance. This percentage shows how much
the beams that transmitted through the surface of material. While, the absorbtion shows how much the
beams that absorbed through the surface of material.

Figure 4.1. The graph plotted with the wavelength and transmittance in the i-type a-SiC:H and a-Si:H layer.

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 SPECTA Journal of Technology, Vol. X, No. X, Month Year
ISSN : 2549-2713

Figure 4.2. Absorbtion coefficient () result in three layers using UV-VIS characterization.

From the graph in Figure 4.1. can be seen that the a-SiC:H layer with the flow rate of methane gas 40
sccm tend to be lower that a-SiC:H with the flow rate of methane gas 20 sccm. This known situation is
caused by the layer with the low transmittance are having the major thickness, this means that the
layer will hard to transmit the light beams. While in the Figure 4.2. is shown that the value of
absorbtion coefficient have the range from 104- 107 with the curve line of a-SiC:H 20 and 40 sccm are
coincide to each other caused by their value that not so different. However, the i-type standard has the
value that overmuch the two others a-SiC:H. This material with the higher absorbtion coefficent will
tend to easily absorb the photon which means that the electron will easily to be excited to conduction
band. Absorbtion coefficient defined how far the beam with a specific wavelength will penetrate the
surface of material before it will absorbed. The beam with the energy under the band gap will cannot
excite the electron to the conduction band and the beam will not be absorbed. The much electron that
can interact with photon, this means that much of photon will be absorbed. According to the research
done by PVEducation, is known that the absorbtion coefficient of amorphous silicon (a-Si) material
with the range of wavelength 200-800 nm is have the coefficient range from 10-105. This value is
different with this study result, that the range of absorbtion coefficient obtained from every layer
reached 107. This can be assumed that the add of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) elements to amorphous
silicon material are contributed to increase the capability of layer to absorb the lights.

Table 2: The conductivity obtained from each i-type layer

Layers Conductivity (S/cm)
i-type a-SiC:H 20 sccm 0,000418
i-type a-SiC:H 40 sccm 0,000536
i-type a-Si:H standard 0,000213

From Table 2 is seen that the conductivity increased in the i-type a-SiC:H layer along with the higher
of methane gas flow rate. This condition should be contrary, because the enhancement of the band gap
value along with the increase of the flow rate of gas will intensify the voltage instead of making the
conductivity decreased. However, some factor will have to take into account due to this increase. The
ratio of the a-SiC:H conductivity are closed to the twice of a-Si:H value. This show that the
contribution of carbon element will rise the benefit to its electronic properties which is the gain of
conductivity.

4. Conclusion

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 SPECTA Journal of Technology, Vol. X, No. X, Month Year
ISSN : 2549-2713

From this study, the results are the deposition has been done and given the layer of i-type
hydrogenated amorphous carbide silicon (a-SiC:H) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) with
the value of electrical conductivity increased by the higher flow rate of methane gas (CH4), and the
value of transmittance for i-type a-SiC:H layer decreased by the higher flow rate of methane gas, and
also the absorbtion coefficient () have the range value from 104 until 107.

Acknowledgments
This paper and study can be successfully achieved by the support from our Tim Penelitian Sel Surya
(solar cell research team) Departement of Physics, FMIPA, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of
Technology, and also Prof. Dr. Ir. Sulistijono, DEA and Prof. Dr. Darminto, M.Sc as our Supervisor
and co-Supervisor, the management operator inside LPPM ITS Laboratory of Energy and all the
college student of Kalimantan Institute of Technology.

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