Evidence of bimodal crystallite size distribution in μc-Si:H films

We report on the microstructural characterization studies carried out on plasma deposited highly crystalline undoped microcrystalline silicon films to explore the crystallite size distribution present in this material. The modeling of results of spectroscopic ellipsometry using two different sized crystallites is corroborated by the deconvolution of experimental Raman profiles using a modeling method that incorporates a bimodal size distribution of crystallites. The presence of a bimodal size distribution of crystallites is demonstrated as well by the results of atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies. The qualitative agreement between the results of different studies is discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.