Aligned amorphous and microcrystalline Si nanorods by glancing angle deposition at low temperature

Aligned amorphous and crystallized silicon nanorods (SiNRs) were successfully fabricated at low temperatures using radio frequency magnetron sputtering and hot wire chemical vapor deposition with glancing angle incident flux. The influences of the deposition pressure, sputtering power, substrate rotation and hydrogen dilution ratio on the diameter, density, orientation and crystallization of the Si nanorods were systematically investigated. With increasing sputtering power, the density of Si nanorods decreases and the diameter of SiNRs increases. The pressure has the opposite effect on the growth of SiNRs compared with the sputtering power. By combining glancing angle deposition (GLAD) with the hydrogen diluted silane in hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD), aligned crystallized Si nanorods with a crystalline volume fraction of 0.55 were achieved under a substrate temperature of 140 degrees C. The Si nanorods have been tested for photovoltaic application.