Browsing by Author "Ramisch, Evelyn Christine"

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Influence of the ion energy on generation and properties of thin barrier layers deposited in a microwave plasma process
(2012) Ramisch, Evelyn Christine; Stroth, Ulrich (Prof. Dr.)
The demand for environment-friendly energy sources increases more and more, which is not only caused by the energy turnaround initialized by the Federal Government. In this context, the focus is set mainly on the development of wind power and solar energy with competitive production costs. Above all, this is a problem for solar cells, which, today, are mainly fabricated out of crystalline silicon and, therefore, are in competition with semiconductor industry. Hence, the development of solar cells based on alternative materials like e.g. copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) is of great interest. Because of the lower layer thickness needed for this material, these solar cells can be fabricated on flexible substrates like metal foils. This possibility offers a broader spectrum of applications. For reaching low production costs, the applicability of unpolished steel foil, which exhibits scratches on the µm scale, is investigated as substrate for the solar cells in this work. The use of any metal as substrate requires a barrier layer between the substrate and the solar cells to prevent short-circuits between the separate cells of a solar module and to prevent the diffusion of undesired substrate elements into the solar cells. In this work, siliconoxide and silicon-nitride coatings are deposited as barrier layers in a microwaveplasma process in a gas mixture of HMDSO (hexamethyldisiloxane) and oxygen or monosilane and ammonia. To have the opportunity of influencing the layer growth by high-energetic ions, an additional substrate bias is applied during the deposition, which leads to a capacitive discharge superimposing the microwave one. The high-energetic ions impinging on the layer surface lead to a layer smoothing and melting, especially at positions of indentations in the substrate surface. Hence, the barrier properties of the coating are improved clearly, which was identified by insulation measurements of the deposited film. The layer growth modification is analyzed on the basis of substrates with a well-defined rough surface structure in the µm range experimentally as well as by simulations with the Monte-Carlo Code SDTrimSP-2D, which allows a detailed analysis of the local layer growth mechanisms contributing to the deposition. Additionally, the impinge of the energetic ions affects the molecular structure and composition of the coatings as well. These parameters are an important indicator for the layer material properties like adhesion, hardness and diffusion properties. The molecular composition of the deposited layers is analyzed in detail by Fourier- ransform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. From the layer composition and their refractive index, conclusions on the diffusion behavior of the coatings are drawn. In case of applying the substrate bias, the spectra indicate a denser and harder film in case of silicon oxide. Hence, these layers are more diffusion preventing compared to the unbiased ones. On the other hand, the silicon-nitride coatings show contrary properties: They offer more porous layers, when the substrate bias is applied, and, therefore, they assist diffusion.