Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 299–302 (2002) 314–317

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Linear thermal expansion coefficients of amorphous and

microcrystalline silicon films
K. Takimoto a, A. Fukuta a, Y. Yamamoto b, N. Yoshida a,*
, T. Itoh b,
S. Nonomura a
a
Environmental and Renewable Energy Systems Division, Graduate School of Engineering, Gifu University,
1-1 Yanagido, 501-1193 Gifu, Japan
b
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, 501-1193 Gifu, Japan

Abstract

The linear thermal expansion coefficient, b, of hydrogenated amorphous (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline (lc-Si:H)
silicon films has been investigated. The value of b of a-Si:H and lc-Si:H films was
1  106 K1 at room temperature.
It is also found that the b values for thermally annealed a-Si and polycrystalline Si were
4  106 K1 at room
temperature, coefficients similar to that of single crystalline Si. The linear thermal expansion coefficients in Si films seem
to be strongly influenced by the hydrogen incorporation. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PACS: 61.43.Dq; 65.40.De; 65.60.þa

1. Introduction In this study, we have succeeded in developing

a measurement method for b in thin films, and we
Studies on thermal properties in solids are im- have applied this technique to hydrogenated
portant from the point of view of both funda- amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and hydrogenated
mental physics and applications. For example, the microcrystalline silicon (lc-Si:H) films. Further-
linear thermal expansion coefficient b in thin solid more, b of thermally annealed a-Si and polycrys-
films is important to obtain insights into the talline Si (poly-Si) films was also investigated.
atomic structure of the film and the thermal du- From the result of these measurements, the origin
rability of thin film devices. However, the mea- of the difference of b among these films is discussed
surement of b in thin films is difficult because the from the point of view of the Si structure and of
magnitude of the volume change of the film due to the hydrogen content in the film.
temperature changes is very small and difficult to
detect.
2. Experimental

*
Corresponding author. Silica glass with dimensions of 2  20 mm2 was
E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Yoshida). used as substrates for measurements of the linear

0022-3093/02/$ - see front matter Ó 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 2 2 - 3 0 9 3 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 9 3 0 - 4
 K. Takimoto et al. / Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 299–302 (2002) 314–317 315

thermal expansion coefficient. Substrate thickness temperature to
150 °C using a heater and a
was varied from 0.05 to 0.2 mm. thermocouple installed in the cryostat.
a-Si:H and lc-Si:H films were prepared by The value of b is estimated as follows; first, the
plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The value Da=a is calculated at a given T from the
substrate temperature was
250 °C. Hydrogen displacement x on the PSD using
dilution ratio (¼ H2 /SiH4 ) of 4–60 and total gas 

Da 1  mf Es ds2 tan1 2Lx
pressure of 1–6 Torr were employed. The RF ¼ a tan ;
(13.56 MHz) power was 15–40 W. To prepare a-Si a Ef 3ð1  ms Þdf a2 2
films without hydrogen, thermal annealing was ð1Þ
performed at
650 °C for 30 min to out-diffuse where mi , Ei and di are the Poisson’s ratio, the
hydrogen from the a-Si:H films [2]. To prepare Young modulus and the thickness, respectively.
poly-Si films, thermal annealing at
720 °C for 3 h The subscript i indicates film (f) and substrate (s).
was employed [2]. The thickness of the films was In this study, mf ¼ 0:28 and Ef ¼ 1:3  1011 Nm2
0.1–1 lm. for a-Si:H films, and ms ¼ 0:17 and Es ¼ 7:3  1010
The linear thermal expansion coefficient b of Nm2 for quartz substrate are used [1]. L is the
thin film can be measured using the laser optical distance between the sample and the PSD (
50
lever method (see Fig. 1) [1]. This technique utilizes cm) and a is the original length of the film of
1
the bending effect of the bimorph sample consisting cm. Then, the linear thermal expansion coefficient
of a film and a substrate. When the temperature of b can be estimated by
the sample changes, the sample bends because of
the difference of the coefficient of thermal expan- d Da
b¼ ; ð2Þ
sion between film and the substrate. b can be esti- dT a
mated by measuring the magnitude of the bending. where T is temperature of the sample.
A schematic illustration for the measurement of
b is shown in Fig. 1. The sample was kept in an
optical cryostat in a 103 Torr vacuum. The sample 3. Results
holder was made of super-invar which has a small
coefficient of thermal expansion of
0:4  106 Fig. 2 shows experimental data for the thermal
K1 [1]. A He–Ne laser beam illuminated at the free expansion Da=a. The horizontal axis is experi-
edge of the sample as a probe beam. The dis- mental time. The vertical axis shows the tempera-
placement x of the reflected beam was measured by ture of the sample (solid line) and the magnitude of
a position sensitive detector (PSD). The tempera- Da=a of the sample (dashed line). Note that it is
ture of the sample was controlled from room confirmed that the strain of the experimental ap-
paratus can be neglected. Da=a follows the tem-
perature change of the sample. A differential of
Da=a on temperature results in a value of b as
expressed by Eq. (2).
Fig. 3 shows the temperature dependence of
the linear thermal expansion coefficient b in a-Si:H
films. Open squares, open triangles and open cir-
cles in the figure indicate the data for samples with
substrate thickness of 50, 100 and 200 lm, re-
spectively. The film thickness is
1 lm. It is con-
firmed that the value of b is almost independent
of the thickness of the substrate. b for a-Si:H films
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the laser optical lever bending is
1  106 K1 at room temperature. b is also
technique [1] for measurement of the linear thermal expansion not influenced by the thickness (0.1–1 lm) of the
coefficient in Si films. film for a substrate thickness of 100 lm (not
316 K. Takimoto et al. / Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 299–302 (2002) 314–317

of a-Si:H films. The slope for temperature is sim-

ilar to that for a-Si:H films.
To investigate the origin of the difference in b
between a-Si:H films and c-Si, values of b for an
a-Si film and a poly-Si film were also measured.
Note that these films do not contain hydrogen
because they were thermally annealed at a tem-
perature of
650 °C for hydrogen desorption and
at a temperature of
720 ° C for crystallization [2].
The data are plotted in Fig. 3 by solid squares and
solid triangles, respectively. It is found that b for
these films was
3:5  106 K1 .
It seems that b is determined by hydrogen in-
corporation instead of the Si structure. That is, b
of an a-Si film is similar to that of c-Si rather than
Fig. 2. Time evolution of temperature and thermal expansion that of a-Si:H films.
Da=a in an a-Si:H film. To confirm the hypothesis described above, b
in a lc-Si:H film was also measured. The result is
plotted in Fig. 3 using open diamonds. It is found
that the value of b of a lc-Si:H film is similar to
that of a-Si:H films of
1  106 K1 .

4. Discussion

The origin of the difference in the value of b

among Si films is discussed. As shown in Fig. 3,
values of b for a-Si, poly-Si films and c-Si are
larger than those for a-Si:H and lc-Si:H films.
Hence, it can be assumed that b does not depend
on the Si structure (crystalline or amorphous) in-
stead on the hydrogen incorporation. The hydro-
gen incorporation in Si films plays a role to
decrease the average coordination number of the
Fig. 3. Temperature dependence of the linear thermal expan- Si network. That is, the average coordination
sion coefficient b of a-Si:H films. Thickness of the film is
1 lm. numbers in a-Si:H and lc-Si:H are smaller than
Open squares, open triangles and open circles indicate the those in c-Si, poly-Si and a-Si. Consequently, the
substrate thickness of 50, 100 and 200 lm, respectively. Values
Si network in the former is more flexible than that
of b of a-Si ( ), poly-Si ( ) and lc-Si:H films ( ) are also
plotted. The b values of c-Si [3] are plotted by solid circles with in the latter. If the Si network has high flexibility,
a solid line for reference. The error is included in each symbol of the value of b may be decreased. Accordingly, b
the data. for a-Si:H and lc-Si:H films are smaller than those
of a-Si, poly-Si films and c-Si.
shown). Also note that b appears to increase
monotonically with temperature.
b of single crystalline silicon (c-Si; bulk) is 5. Conclusions

2:5  106 K1 [3] at room temperature. The
data for c-Si is also plotted in Fig. 3 using solid We have succeeded in developing a method for
circles and a solid line. b of c-Si is larger than that the measurement of the linear thermal expansion
 K. Takimoto et al. / Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 299–302 (2002) 314–317 317

coefficient, b, in thin solid films. This technique has Industries Co. Ltd. Foundation, Mazda Founda-
been applied to Si films. It is found that values of tion’s Research grant, Koshiyama Research Grant
b of a-Si:H and lc-Si:H films are smaller than and Ogawa Science and Technology Foundation.
those of a-Si, poly-Si films and c-Si. The difference
in the value of b among these films seems to
originate from hydrogen incorporation. References

Acknowledgements [1] S. Nonomura, N. Yoshida, T. Gotoh, T. Sakamoto,

M. Kondo, A. Matsuda, S. Nitta, J. Non-Cryst. Solids
266–269 (2000) 474.
This study was financially supported by NEDO [2] W. Beyer, H. Wagner, J. Non-Cryst. Solids 59&60 (1983)
as a part of the New Sunshine Program of MITI, 161.
Kawasaki Steel 21st Century Foundation, Kai [3] C.A. Swenson, J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 12 (1983) 179.