Processes in silicon deposition by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition

Hot-wire chemical vapor deposition is a rapidly developing CVD technique for the deposition of silicon thin films and silicon alloys and may become a competitor of the plasma-enhanced (PE) CVD method due to significant advantages such as high deposition rate, efficient source gas utilization, lack of ion bombardment, and low equipment cost. Little is known, however, about the mechanisms for catalytic decomposition of the source gases, gas phase reactions at commonly used pressures, and the growth reactions. In this article, the differences in the reactions at various filament materials are discussed and it is shown that the subsequent reactions in the gas phase and reactions contributing to film growth can be substantially different from those in PE-CVD, due to the lack of energetic electrons and ions. Further work is necessary to identify the role of each precursor for the deposition of amorphous and microcrystalline films.