Coupled Investigation of Contact Potential and Microstructure Evolution of Ultra-Thin AlO<sub>x</sub> for Crystalline Si Passivation
Zhen Zheng,
Junyang An,
Ruiling Gong,
Yuheng Zeng,
Jichun Ye,
Linwei Yu,
Ileana Florea,
Pere Roca i Cabarrocas,
Wanghua Chen
Affiliations
Zhen Zheng
School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Junyang An
School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Ruiling Gong
School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Yuheng Zeng
Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Jichun Ye
Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Linwei Yu
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Electronics Science and Engineering/Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Ileana Florea
Laboratory of Physics of Interfaces and Thin Films, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 91128 Palaiseau, France
Pere Roca i Cabarrocas
Laboratory of Physics of Interfaces and Thin Films, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 91128 Palaiseau, France
Wanghua Chen
School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
In this work, we report the same trends for the contact potential difference measured by Kelvin probe force microscopy and the effective carrier lifetime on crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers passivated by AlOx layers of different thicknesses and submitted to annealing under various conditions. The changes in contact potential difference values and in the effective carrier lifetimes of the wafers are discussed in view of structural changes of the c-Si/SiO2/AlOx interface thanks to high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Indeed, we observed the presence of a crystalline silicon oxide interfacial layer in as-deposited (200 °C) AlOx, and a phase transformation from crystalline to amorphous silicon oxide when they were annealed in vacuum at 300 °C.
