Abstract A series of hydrogenated microcrystalline films were grown by a novel thin film deposition method using the Saddle Field Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition system. We show that the surface potential during growth strongly affects the microcrys- talline character of the films, as quantified by Raman scattering. This effect can be reproduced on both con- ductive and non-conductive substrates. Films grown close to the threshold for microcrystalline growth exhibit laser-induced crystallization at low laser intensities. 1 Introduction Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon ( lc-Si:H) has been shown to be an important material from both scientific and technological perspectives. The material demonstrates higher mobility and doping efficiency than hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), a greater infrared response, and electrical properties with higher stability under light-soaking conditions. Its use in tandem photovoltaic cells has resulted in higher efficiency cells while keeping within a low-cost material system [1]. The film morphology—often quantified through microcrystalline content—has been shown to be particularly sensitive to growth conditions and technologies [2]. One such condition is the amount of energetic ion bombardment during growth, the impact of which has been well documented [3, 4]. The modi- fication of the film due to energetic ions has been shown to extend below the growth surface and to suppress microcrystalline growth if the bombardment is too severe. A novel thin film deposition technique—the Saddle Field Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (SF-PECVD) system—has been successfully used to deposit thin films of lc-Si:H. Previous work on the growth of lc-Si:H in the SF-PECVD system has shown that the electrical potential of the substrate surface during growth—whether modified actively by an external source [5] or simply allowed to charge up through the collection of positive ions [6, 7]—crucially impacts the resulting film morphology. In this work, we present a comprehensive experimental analysis of this effect. We quantify the microcrystalline content and crystallite size through Raman scattering, show the impact of substrate surface potential for multiple substrate types—fluorine-doped tin-oxide coated glass (SnO 2 : F), high-resistivity low-alkali borosilicate Corning glass (CG7059), and fused silica (f-SiO 2 ). Additionally, we examine the laser-induced crystalli- zation of the resulting films. 2 Experimental Procedure Twenty sets of samples were grown for this study. All of the samples were grown under the following similar conditions (Table 1): E. V. Johnson N. P. Kherani S. Zukotynski (&) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G4, Canada e-mail: setfan.zukotynski@utoronto.ca Present Address: E. V. Johnson LPICM, E ´ cole Polytechnique, Palaiseau Cedex 91128, France J Mater Sci: Mater Electron (2006) 17:801–813 DOI 10.1007/s10854-006-0026-z 123 Raman scattering characterization of SF-PECVD-grown hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon thin films using growth surface electrical bias Erik V. Johnson Nazir P. Kherani Stefan Zukotynski Received: 09 January 2006 / Accepted: 07 April 2006 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006