Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dvmhs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T05:19:04.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Low Temperature Kinetics for the Growth and Decay of Band-Tallcarriers and Dangling Bonds in Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Niko Schultz
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
P.C. Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
Get access

Abstract

In hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), the kinetics of the light induced production of silicon dangling bonds and long-lived band-tail electrons and holes has been measured at temperatures between 65 and 340 K using light induced electron spin resonance (LESR). Below about 150 K the measurement of Si dangling bonds is masked by the accumulation of long-lived band-tail carriers. The kinetics of the growth and decay of these long-lived, trapped band-tail carriers consists of very fast components (τ < ms) and very long components (τ > h). Optical quenching of these long-lived carriers is not efficient at quenching energies of 0.6 eV. Afler removal of these long-lived band tail carriers by annealing at about 250 K we find that the total production of silicon dangling bonds at 65 K after 10 h of illumination is about a factor of five less than at 340 K. The dangling bond production resulting from 10 h of illumination is well fit to an underlying mechanism that, if thermally activated, exhibits an activation energy of approximately 10 meV.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Staebler, D. L. and Wronski, C. R., Appl. Phys. Lett. 31, 292 (1977).Google Scholar
2. Stradins, P. and Fritzsche, H., Phil. Mag. B69, 121 (1994).Google Scholar
3. Stradins, P. and Fritzsche, H., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 198–200, 432 (1996).Google Scholar
4. Branz, H., Solid State Commun. 105, 387 (1998).Google Scholar
5. Umeda, T., Yamasaki, S., Isoya, J., Matsuda, A., Tanaka, K., Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4600 (1996).Google Scholar
6. Street, R. A. and Biegelsen, D. K., Solid State Commun. 44, 501 (1982).Google Scholar
7. Carius, R. and Fuhs, W., AIP Conf. Proc. 120, 125 (1984).Google Scholar
8. Persans, P., Phil. Mag. B46, 435 (1982).Google Scholar
9. Tran, M. Q., Stradins, P., and Fritzsche, H., MRS Symp. Proc. 336, 431 (1994).Google Scholar
10. Fritzsche, H., Heck, S., and Stradins, P., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 198–200, 153 (1996).Google Scholar
11. Boulitrop, F., AIP Conf. Proc. 120, 178 (1984).Google Scholar
12. Yan, B. and Taylor, P. C., MRS Symp. Proc. 507, 805 (1998).Google Scholar
13. Stutzmann, M., Jackson, W. B., and Tsai, C. C., Phys. Rev. B32, 23 (1984).Google Scholar
14.To be published elsewhere.Google Scholar