Technology update
Sep 26, 2007
Nanocrystalline silicon grows at room temperature
Crystalline and polycrystalline silicon films for use in electronic devices, such as solar cells and thin-film transistors, are usually grown at high temperatures. Now, scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have shown that polycrystalline silicon films containing nanocrystals as small as 10 nm can be grown at room temperature from a plasma of silane heavily diluted with hydrogen. The new result, which confirms theory, could be important for making devices on flexible substrates, such as plastics, and may even lead the way to producing diamond at room temperature.
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