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Relation of nanoscale and macroscopic properties of mixed‐phase silicon thin films
Author(s) -
Fejfar A.,
Vetushka A.,
Kalusová V.,
Čertík O.,
Ledinský M.,
Rezek B.,
Stuchlík J.,
Kočka J.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.200982907
Subject(s) - materials science , nanoscopic scale , percolation (cognitive psychology) , silicon , thin film , conductivity , conical surface , phase (matter) , nanometre , conductive atomic force microscopy , nanotechnology , condensed matter physics , optoelectronics , composite material , atomic force microscopy , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , biology
Abstract Scanning probe methods (SPMs) such as conductive atomic force microscopy (C‐AFM) can be used to probe the structure and local conductivity of the mixed phase silicon thin films with nanometer resolution. Effective medium approximations (EMAs) were used to relate the nanoscale properties with effective macroscopic properties for the dark conductivity measured with coplanar contacts. Comparison of the percolation threshold predicted by diffferent EMAs show partial correlation of the structure, with resistive amorphous phase coating the conductive grains. In sandwich structures (such as solar cells) the local fields may play important role: concentration of both optical and electrical internal fields to the tips of spherically capped conical microcrystalline grains. Adaptive higher‐order polynomial finite‐element methods (FEMs) were used to calculate the internal field distributions in the C‐AFM. The calculated values agree with the experimental C‐AFM, providing the first quantitative description of the relation of the nanoscale and macroscopic properties of the mixed phase Si films.