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Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) refers to a broad class of atomic configurations, sharing a lack of long-range order, but varying significantly in material properties, including optical constants, porosity, hydrogen content, and intrinsic stress. It has long been known that deposition conditions affect microstructure, but much work remains to uncover the correlation between these parameters and their influence on electrical, mechanical, and optical properties critical for high-performance a-Si:H photovoltaic devices. We synthesize and augment several previous models of deposition phenomena and ion bombardment, developing a refined model correlating plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition conditions (pressure and discharge power and frequency) to the development of intrinsic stress in thin films. As predicted by the model presented herein, we observe that film compressive stress varies nearly linearly with bombarding ion momentum and with a (\ensuremath{-}1/4) power dependence on deposition pressure, that tensile stress is proportional to a reduction in film porosity, and the net film intrinsic stress results from a balance between these two forces. We observe the hydrogen-bonding configuration to evolve with increasing ion momentum, shifting from a void-dominated configuration to a silicon-monohydride configuration. Through this enhanced understanding of the structure-property-process relation of a-Si:H films, improved tunability of optical, mechanical, structural, and electronic properties should be achievable.

Low hole mobility severely limits the conversion efficiencies of amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells. Previously it has been proposed that carrier mobility can be improved by introducing certain types of stress into thin films. In this work we explore a range of deposition conditions allowing the formation of intrinsic stresses varying from −924 MPa compressive to 386 MPa tensile. We then discuss the origins of these stresses due to ion bombardment, presenting a model correlating our deposition parameters with our observed stress measurements. In doing so we elucidate the non-linear relationship between deposition pressure and the films intrinsic stress.