Arendse, Christopher J.Muller, T.F.G.Malgas, G.Towfie, Nazley2014-11-132024-10-302014-11-132024-10-302013https://hdl.handle.net/10566/16576>Magister Scientiae - MScThis study reports on the effects of hydrogen dilution and deposition time on six silicon thin films deposited at six specific deposition regimes. The thin film properties are investigated via X-Ray diffraction analysis, raman spectroscopy, fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy, elastic recoil detection analysis, scanning and transmission electron microscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy. This investigation revealed the dominating etching effect of atomic hydrogen with the increase in hydrogen dilution and a bonded hydrogen content (CH) exceeding 10 at.% for each of the six thin films. The optically determined void volume fraction and static refractive index remain constant, for each thin film, with the change in CHenHydrogenated amorphous siliconHydrogenated nanocrystalline siliconHot wire chemical vapour depositionTandem solar cellsNano-voidsMorphologyMicrostructureHydrogen etchingThesisUniversity of the Western Cape