Abstract
Nano-crystalline Si films with high conductivities are highly desired in order to develop the new generation of nano-devices. Here, we first demonstrate that the grain boundaries played an important role in the carrier transport process in un-doped nano-crystalline Si films as revealed by the temperature-dependent Hall measurements. The potential barrier height can be well estimated from the experimental results, which is in good agreement with the proposed model. Then, by introducing P and B doping, it is found that the scattering of grain boundaries can be significantly suppressed and the Hall mobility is monotonously decreased with the temperature both in P- and B-doped nano-crystalline Si films, which can be attributed to the trapping of P and B dopants in the grain boundary regions to reduce the barriers. Consequently, a room temperature conductivity as high as 1.58 × 10³ S/cm and 4 × 10² S/cm is achieved for the P-doped and B-doped samples, respectively.