TY - JOUR AU - Smirnov, V. AU - Lambertz, Andreas AU - Moll, Sandra AU - Bär, M. AU - Starr, D. E. AU - Wilks, R. G. AU - Gorgoi, M. AU - Heidt, Anna AU - Luysberg, Martina AU - Holländer, Bernhard AU - Finger, Friedhelm TI - Doped microcrystalline silicon oxide alloys for silicon-based photovoltaics: Optoelectronic properties, chemical composition, and structure studied by advanced characterization techniques JO - Physica status solidi / A VL - 213 IS - 7 SN - 1862-6300 CY - Weinheim PB - Wiley-VCH M1 - FZJ-2016-02626 SP - 1814 - 1820 PY - 2016 AB - 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 LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 UR - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000385222900024 DO - DOI:10.1002/pssa.201533022 UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/809697 ER -