wxAMPS Simulation of Electronic Transport Mechanism in Intrinsic and Doped Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin Films

wxAMPS Simulation of Electronic Transport Mechanism in Intrinsic and Doped Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin Films | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article wxAMPS Simulation of Electronic Transport Mechanism in Intrinsic and Doped Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin Films Mokhtar Chahi, Ahmed Gharou, Hamid Nehmar, Mustapha Kasdi, Hadj Benhabara, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015781/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The main objective of this research is a numerical investigation of the transport properties in hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon thin films for solar cells applications using the wxAMPS software tool. The simulated samples were fabricated at 100°C using radiofrequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) method with RF power 220 W, a gas mixture of 30% of argon and 70% of hydrogen under a total pressure of 3 Pa and the target – sample holder distance, fixed at 70 mm, were maintained constant for the three categories intrinsic, phosphorus doped and boron doped films at deposition times of 3 and 30 minutes. The simulation carried out in this research, is based on a layer of nanocrystalline silicon that was constructed using successive and alternative crystalline and amorphous thin layers where their total number is depending on the thickness of the considered sample. The electronic transport mechanism is studied and findings clearly demonstrated that doped and undoped samples have different activation energy ( E a ) which obviously illustrates the crucial role of doping. The E a is less than 0.2 eV for all the simulated samples strongly indicating a hoping transport mechanism. These results were compared to experimental and previous works where a good agreement was observed. Nanocrystalline silicon wxAMPS software Dark conductivity Activation energy Hopping Simulation study Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6015781","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":415223993,"identity":"5ba5a3b8-e38e-460c-b359-1f616b986da4","order_by":0,"name":"Mokhtar Chahi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Ecole Supérieure en Génie Electrique et Energétique d'Oran","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mokhtar","middleName":"","lastName":"Chahi","suffix":""},{"id":415223994,"identity":"a76d1ee1-ca5a-478d-aec9-a4d2d028fdbc","order_by":1,"name":"Ahmed Gharou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tissemsilt University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ahmed","middleName":"","lastName":"Gharou","suffix":""},{"id":415223995,"identity":"d15b5b46-9c00-437a-b102-880892480459","order_by":2,"name":"Hamid Nehmar","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA2UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACHhiD+QCQkJAhRQtbAkgLD26VmFp4DFC4OIE5e+/RDT/3bJMzbz/z+dWNGgseBvbDRzfg02LZcy7tZs+z28YyZ3K3WeccAzqMJy3tBj4tBjdyzG7wHLidOIMhd5txDhtQiwSPGX4t99+Y3fwD0sL/5plxzj9itNzgMbsNtkUih/lxbhsxWs7kmN2WOXDbWELimRlzbp8EDxtBvxw/Y3bzzYHbchL8yY8/53yrk+NnP3wMrxZkwCYBJolVDgLMH0hRPQpGwSgYBSMHAAAqXkqjePDPSwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Université Oran 1 Ahmed Ben Bella","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hamid","middleName":"","lastName":"Nehmar","suffix":""},{"id":415223996,"identity":"394e3019-04ca-4f1e-978d-98282cf4ce6f","order_by":3,"name":"Mustapha Kasdi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tissemsilt University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mustapha","middleName":"","lastName":"Kasdi","suffix":""},{"id":415223997,"identity":"775d5b40-1a1d-499b-b3fe-970a81e9cfb9","order_by":4,"name":"Hadj Benhabara","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Ecole Supérieure en Génie Electrique et Energétique d'Oran","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hadj","middleName":"","lastName":"Benhabara","suffix":""},{"id":415223998,"identity":"29663a4b-9efd-4c01-aee6-a4d0c83da6eb","order_by":5,"name":"Ahmed Bouhekka","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tissemsilt University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ahmed","middleName":"","lastName":"Bouhekka","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-02-12 13:53:21","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015781/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015781/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":76444468,"identity":"ce2419fd-2e6b-4553-95f3-36d2c4c42114","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-02-17 08:47:41","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":811708,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscprit.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6015781/v1_covered_65f34dd2-15f0-49da-a8c0-31e13c8bd153.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"wxAMPS Simulation of Electronic Transport Mechanism in Intrinsic and Doped Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin Films","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Nanocrystalline silicon, wxAMPS software, Dark conductivity, Activation energy, Hopping, Simulation study","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015781/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015781/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe main objective of this research is a numerical investigation of the transport properties in hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon thin films for solar cells applications using the wxAMPS software tool. The simulated samples were fabricated at 100\u0026deg;C using radiofrequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) method with RF power 220 W, a gas mixture of 30% of argon and 70% of hydrogen under a total pressure of 3 Pa and the target \u0026ndash; sample holder distance, fixed at 70 mm, were maintained constant for the three categories intrinsic, phosphorus doped and boron doped films at deposition times of 3 and 30 minutes. The simulation carried out in this research, is based on a layer of nanocrystalline silicon that was constructed using successive and alternative crystalline and amorphous thin layers where their total number is depending on the thickness of the considered sample. The electronic transport mechanism is studied and findings clearly demonstrated that doped and undoped samples have different activation energy (\u003cem\u003eE\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003ea\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e) which obviously illustrates the crucial role of doping. The \u003cem\u003eE\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003ea\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e is less than 0.2 eV for all the simulated samples strongly indicating a hoping transport mechanism. 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