Novel approach to thin film polycrystalline silicon on glass

Thin (1 μm) a-Si:H films have been deposited on glass at high-deposition rate (8 nm/s) and high substrate temperature (400 °C) by the expanding thermal plasma technique (ETP). After a Solid Phase Crystallization treatment at 650 °C for 10 h, many crystal grains are found to extend over the entire thickness (1 μm) of the polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films. This result indicates that the scalable, high-deposition rate ETP method can contribute to increase the potential for a widespread diffusion of poly-Si based thin film solar cells on glass.