New Microscopic Model of the Staebler-Wronski Effect in Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon
A new microscopic and kinetic model of light-induced metastability in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) was recently proposed. Carrier recombination excites H from deep Si-H bonds into a mobile configuration, leaving a threefold-coordinated Si dangling bond (DB) defect at the site of excitation - a process long suspected to be an element of metastable DB production. Normally, mobile H are recaptured at DB defects and neither metastability nor net DB production results. However, when two mobile H collide, they form a metastable two-hydrogen complex and leave two spatially-uncorrelated Staebler-Wronski DBs. The model leads to differential equations describing the evolution of the mobile H and DB densities and a variety of new predictions. New directions for improving the stability of a-Si:H are discussed.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-83CH10093
- OSTI ID:
- 12221
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-520-25655
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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