Non-single-crystalline semiconductor layer on a substrate and method of making same

A non-single-crystalline semiconductor layer manufacturing method which employs a reaction chamber provided with a gas inlet and a gas outlet;

• wherein a substrate is disposed in the reaction chamber, and a mixture gas containing at least a semiconductor material gas consisting principally of silicon hydride and an additional semiconductor material gas consisting of tin hydroxide or halide is introduced into the reaction chamber through the gas inlet thereof in such a state in which a gas in the reaction chamber is exhausted therefrom through the gas outlet;
• wherein in the reaction chamber, an ionizing, high-frequency electromagnetic field is applied to the mixture gas to ionize into a mixture gas plasma;
• wherein the mixture gas plasma is passed into the reaction chamber by discharging the gas in the reaction chamber;
• and
• wherein in the reaction chamber, a semiconductor material consisting principally of silicon and tin is deposited on the substrate as a result of the flowing of the mixture gas plasma into the reaction chamber, and in this case, the atmospheric pressure in the reaction chamber is held below 1 atm and the temperature of the substrate is maintained below 700.degree. C. which is lower than the temperature of single-crystallizing the semiconductor material deposited on the substrate, thereby to form on the substrate a non-single-crystalline compound semiconductor layer consisting principally of silicon and tin and expressed by Si.sub.x Sn.sub.1-x (0<x<1) and which has a sufficiently smaller energy band gap than a non-single-crystalline semiconductor of silicon so that the layer is sensitive to light of a long wavelength such as infrared rays and where said non-single-crystalline compound semiconductor layer also contains hydrogen as a dangling bond neutralizer.