  Single phase nano and micro crystalline silicon films deposited using SiF4/H2
plasma at different H2 dilution levels were studied at initial and terminal
stages of film growth with spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), Raman scattering
(RS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The analysis of data obtained from SE
elucidates the microstructural evolution with film growth in terms of the
changes in crystallite sizes and their volume fractions, crystallite
conglomeration and film morphology. The effect of H2 dilution on film
microstructure and morphology, and the corroborative findings from AFM studies
are discussed. Our SE results evince two distinct mean sizes of crystallites in
the material after a certain stage of film growth. The analysis of Raman
scattering data for such films has been done using a bimodal size distribution
of crystallite grains, which yields more accurate and physically rational
microstructural picture of the material.
