Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T08:46:57.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Metastable Defects in Light Soaked Amorphous Silicon at 77 K

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Tong Ju
Affiliation:
jutong@gmail.com, University of Utah, Physics, 1901 Halford Ave,Apt 9, Santa Clara, CA, 95051, United States
Paul Stradins
Affiliation:
Pauls_Stradins@nrel.gov, National Renewable Energy Lab, Golden, CO, 80401, United States
P. Craig Taylor
Affiliation:
pctaylor@mines.edu, Colorado School of Mines, Physics, Golden, CO, 80401, United States
Get access

Abstract

We have observed the growth of defects caused by optical illumination in liquid nitrogen. We kept the sample in liquid nitrogen over one year. After one year and half the ESR signal reached ∼1018 cm−3 with no evidence of saturation. After that, we step-wise annealed isochronal the sample up to room temperature, where two thirds of original defects were annealed out. After room temperature, the sample was annealing isothermally around 300 K for several months. At this temperature, the defects slowly anneal. After a hundred of hours at 295K, the defect density decreased 10x from its original value at 77K.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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

REFERENCES

1. Schultz, N.A., Taylor, P.C., Phys. Rev. B 65, 235207 (2002).Google Scholar
2. Stutzmann, M., Jackson, W.B., Tsai, C. C., Phys. Rev. B 32, 5510 (1985)Google Scholar
3. Branz, H. M., Solid State Communications. 105, 6 (1998).Google Scholar
4. Branz, H. M., Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 78 (2003).Google Scholar
5. Stradins, P. and Fritzsche, H., Philosophical Magazine Part B, 69, 121(1994).Google Scholar
6. Street, R. A, Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1991).Google Scholar
7. Branz, H. M., Phys. Rev. B 60, 7725 (1999).Google Scholar