Abstract: Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) films with a high deposition rate of 1.2nm/s were prepared by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD).The growth-front roughening processes of the μc-Si:H films were investigated by atomic force microscopy.According to the scaling theory,the growth exponent β≈0.67,the roughness exponent α≈0.80,and the dynamic exponent 1/z=0.40 are obtained.These scaling exponents cannot be explained well by the known growth models.An attempt at Monte Carlo simulation has been made to describe the growth process of μc-Si:H film using a particle reemission model where the incident flux distribution,the type and concentration of growth radical,and sticking,reemission,shadowing mechanisms all contributed to the growing morphology.

Key words: μc-Si:H, growth mechanism, scaling theory, Monte Carlo simulations, reemission process