TITLE:
Fowler-Nordheim Tunneling, Photovoltaic Applications and New Band Structure Models of Electroconductive a-CNx:H Films Formed by Supermagnetron Plasma CVD
AUTHORS:
Haruhisa Kinoshita
KEYWORDS:
Supermagnetron Plasma, Chemical Vapor Deposition, Amorphous Carbon Nitride, Energy Band, Electron Conduction, Field Emission, FN Tunneling, Photovoltaic Cell
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Modern Physics,
Vol.7 No.15,
November
9,
2016
ABSTRACT: Hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride (a-CNx:H) films were formed on Al films deposited on Si or glass (SiO2) substrates, using pulsed radio frequency (PRF) supermagnetron plasma (SMP) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with N2/i-C4H10 mixed gases. a-CNx:H films were grown under the upper and lower electrode RF powers (13.56 MHz) of continuous and pulsed conditions, respectively, which showed low band gap of about 0.7 eV. a-CNx:H films deposited on the Al/Si or Al/SiO2 substrates showed same low threshold emission electric field (ETH) of 12 V/μm. Multiple layer of Al or ITO (anode)/50nm-SiO2/a-CNx:H/Al (cathode)/Si structures showed Fowler-Nordheim (FN) electron tunneling effect in both forward and reverse current directions. 12.5 nm a-CNx:H film on p-Si substrate showed a photoelectric conversion. Energy band structure and electron conduction models were proposed for the active states of both the field emission and FN tunneling devices and photovoltaic cells.