Rapid Reversible Degradation of Silicon Thin Films by a Treatment in Water

Metastability effects in amorphous and microcrystalline silicon thin films induced by exposure to atmospheric gases and water are investigated. A simple procedure is described which allows studying such effects in a reproducible and reliable manner on a short time scale. The method is applied to thin film silicon materials with different structure composition ranging from amorphous to highly crystalline. It is shown that the materials can be brought back into a well defined state even after pro-longed and repeated degradation cycles.