Nitrogen-doping effects on electrical properties of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon as studied by electron paramagnetic resonance and conductivity

We have examined Raman scattering, X-ray diffraction, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra and the conductivity of nitrogen-doped hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon. The EPR signals due to conduction electrons have been observed in the doped films, except for highly doped samples that have no microcrystalline fraction. The result indicates that the doped nitrogen atom acts as an electron donor in the microcrystalline silicon. The temperature dependence of the conductivity clarify that the activation energy depends on the doping level. The influence of the doping level on the conductivity can be interpreted in terms of the balance of the effective electron donation and the decrease of carrier mobility due to a decrease of the microcrystalline phase volume ratio. At temperatures lower than approximately 180 K, the conductivity shows little variation. This is explained using a model of the hopping conduction, in terms of defect states for all samples.