Direct-current hollow-cathode glow-discharge plasma-enhanced-chemical-vapour-deposition technique for a-Si:H thin-film production

The direct-current hollow-cathode glow-discharge plasma-enhanced-chemical-vapour-deposition (PCVD) technique has been developed for the production of a-Si:H thin films. The electric conductivity, deposition rate, and optical characteristics of films produced by this method are similar to those of films produced by the conventional RF-discharge PCVD method. However, the properties of the former can be easily controlled by the discharge current without external substrate heating. The power consumption per deposition rate is much smaller than the microwave methods; but similar to that which is characteristic of RF-discharge methods.