Electronic transport in hydrogenated amorphous silicon films

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5425809

Konenkamp, R F

Parameters characterizing the electronic transport in flow-discharge deposited amorphous (a) Si:H, a-Si:C:H and a-Si:Sn:H films are investigated. For the investigations five experimental techniques are employed. These are the photocurrent reversal, time-of-flight, charge collection, junction recovery and surface photovoltage experiments. In the photocurrent reversal experiment on-going dispute concerning the magnitude of the drift mobilities in a-Si:H is addressed. It is established that the current transients observed in this type of experiment are due to the drift of photogenerated excess carriers. The details of the results are in excellent agreement with the low mobility picture which has been gained by means of transient photoconductivity experiments. In the time-of-flight and charge collection measurements, the drift mobilities, carrier ranges, capture cross-sections for shallow and deep trapping, and the distribution of brandtail states are determined. The origin of the deep trapping states and their role in the Staebler-Wronski effect are discussed. For the first time a detailed description of the junction recovery experiment applied to a-Si:H p-i-n type diodes is given. The recombination process relevant to this experiment is discussed and hole recombination times of the order of 10 ns are measured for double injection conditions. These values are consistent with typical hole diffusion lengths measured in the surface photovoltage method.

• Research Organization: Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5425809
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360603* -- Materials-- Properties
AMORPHOUS STATE
CARRIER MOBILITY
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
ELECTRON TRANSFER
ELEMENTS
FILMS
HYDROGENATION
MOBILITY
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
SEMIMETALS
SILICON
SILICON DIODES
THIN FILMS