a-SiC:H thin film visible light-emitting diodes with highly conductive wide band gap a-SiC:H as the carrier injection layers

Highly conductive (∼10-4(Ωcm)-1) and wide band gap (∼2.0eV) carrier injection layers of a-SiC:H have been prepared by rf plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) using the hydrogen dilution technique. These materials have been utilized in the fabrication of a-SiC:H based thin film light emitting diodes (TFLEDs) as hole and electron injectors and have also been crystallized using an excimer (ArF) laser. The conductivity of these materials increased by up to six orders of magnitude after the laser crystallization. The TFLEDs developed have a structure of glass/ tin oxide (TO)/ i (a-SiC:H) / n (a-SiC:H) and glass/TO/ p (a-SiC:H)/ i (a-SiC:H)/ n (a-SiC:H). Visible yellowish orange light emissions have been observed in these junctions at room temperature. The properties of the carrier injection material as well as device characteristics are reported.