Abstract
The recently developed photothermal technique of quadrature photopyroelectric spectroscopy (Q-PPES) has been applied to measurements of amorphous Si thin films deposited on crystalline Si substrates. Direct, meaningful comparisons have been made between purely optical transmission in-phase (IP-PPES) spectra, and purely thermal-wave sub-gap spectra with the use of a novel noncontacting PPES instrument to record lock-in in-phase and quadrature spectra, respectively. FT-IR transmission spectra have also been obtained for a comparison with this IP-PPES optical method. The results of the present work showed that the FT-IR method performs the worst in terms of spectral resolution of thin films and sub-bandgap defect/impurity absorptions inherent in the Si wafer substrate. The optical IP-PPES channel, however, albeit more sensitive than the FT-IR technique, fails to resolve spectra from surface films thinner than 2100 Å, but is sensitive to sub-bandgap absorptions. The thermal-wave Q-PPES channel is capable of resolving thin-film spectra well below 500 Å thick and exhibits strong signal levels from the crystalline Si sub-bandgap absorptions. Depending on the surface thin-film orientation toward, or away from, the direction of the incident radiation, the estimated minimum mean film thickness resolvable spectroscopically by Q-PPES is either 40 Å or 100 Å, respectively.
PDF Article
More Like This
Cited By
You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.
Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription