High-Pressure Water-Vapor Annealing for Enhancement of a-Si：H Film Passivation of Silicon Surface

We investigate the effect of amorphous hydrogenated silicon （a-Si：H） films passivated on silicon surfaces based on high-pressure water-vapor annealing （HWA）. The effective carrier lifetime of samples reaches the maximum value after 210℃, 90min HWA. Capacitance-voltage measurement reveals that the HWA not only greatly reduces the density of interface states （Dit）, but also decreases the fixed charges （Qfixed） mainly caused by bulk defects. The change of hydrogen and oxygen in the film is measured by a spectroscopic elHpsometer and a Fourier-transform infrared （FTIR） spectrometer. All these results show that HWA is a useful method to improve the passivation effect of a-Si：H films deposited on silicon surfaces.