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Low temperature conduction behavior in highly crystallized undoped microcrystalline silicon thin films

The temperature dependence of dark conductivity at low temperatures (300-15 K) was studied on a wide microstructural range of well-characterized highly crystallized single phase undoped microcrystalline silicon samples. Our study reveals two different temperature dependences in films having different microstructures. A T^(-0.5) dependence of dark conductivity supporting tunneling of carriers between neighboring conducting crystals, similar to percolation-hopping model proposed for metal-insulator composite systems, is seen in microcrystalline silicon films that are fully crystallized with tightly packed large columnar grains and negligible density deficit. A T^(-0.25)dependence of dark conductivity supporting variable range hopping model with an exponential tail state distribution in the gap is seen in microcrystalline silicon films having mostly small crystalline grains, low degree of conglomeration and relatively higher density deficit. The correlation between the microstructural attributes and conductivity behavior is discussed by analyzing the physical plausibility of the hopping parameters and material properties derived by applying different transport models.