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Defect Dynamics and the Properties of Amorphous Silicon – a New Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Sokrates T. Pantelides
Sokrates T. Pantelides*
Affiliation:
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
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In the last twenty years, the dominant paramagnetic defect in a-Si (the D center) was believed to be threefold-coordinated Si (dangling bond) which is not mobile. Many observations, however, have not been explained in a satisfactory way. This paper summarizes recent contributions of the present author which offer a novel and systematic description of the properties of a-Si. It is shown that overcoordinazion is an essential concept and that fivefold- and threefold-coordinated Si are the primitive conjugate intrinsic defects. Overcoordination is the key to defect migration and thus to the realization of reactions between intrinsic defects, hydrogen, and impurities. Most properties of a-Si are a consequence of a small set of reactions. The available data favor the identification of the D center as fivefold-coordinated Si (floating bond). Dangling bonds are nonmagnetic and their signature is a photoluminescence peak at ∼0.9 eV.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 95: Symposium E – Amorphous Silicon Semiconductors--Pure and Hydrogenated , 1987 , 23
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1987

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