%0 Journal Article %A Smirnov, V. %A Lambertz, Andreas %A Moll, Sandra %A Bär, M. %A Starr, D. E. %A Wilks, R. G. %A Gorgoi, M. %A Heidt, Anna %A Luysberg, Martina %A Holländer, Bernhard %A Finger, Friedhelm %T Doped microcrystalline silicon oxide alloys for silicon-based photovoltaics: Optoelectronic properties, chemical composition, and structure studied by advanced characterization techniques %J Physica status solidi / A %V 213 %N 7 %@ 1862-6300 %C Weinheim %I Wiley-VCH %M FZJ-2016-02626 %P 1814 - 1820 %D 2016 %X Doped microcrystalline silicon oxide (μc-SiOx:H) alloys attract significant attention as a functional material in photovoltaic devices. By using various advanced characterization methods, we have studied the relationship between optoelectronic properties, chemical composition, and structure of p-type µc-SiOx:H deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). For a wide range of compositions with varying oxygen content, we show that the dominant components are Si and a-SiO2, while the fraction of suboxides is minor. The μc-SiOx:H material with sufficient oxygen content (x = 0.35) exhibits an enlarged optical gap E04 > 2.2 eV and sufficiently high dark conductivity >10−6 S cm−1; the crystalline silicon fraction has a filament-like shape (with a typical width of around 10 nm) forming a branch-like structure elongated in the growth direction over several hundreds of nanometers %F PUB:(DE-HGF)16 %9 Journal Article %U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000385222900024 %R 10.1002/pssa.201533022 %U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/809697