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Optical Properties of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon, Silicon-Germanium and Silicon-Carbon Thin Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

R.M. Dawson ,
Y.M. Li ,
M. Gunes ,
D. Heller ,
S. Nag ,
R.W. Collins ,
C.R. Wronski ,
M. Bennett  and
Y.M. Li
R.M. Dawson
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
Y.M. Li
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
M. Gunes
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
D. Heller
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
S. Nag
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
R.W. Collins
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
C.R. Wronski
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
M. Bennett
Affiliation:
Solarex Thin Film Division, 826 Newtown-Yardley Rd., Newtown, PA., 18940.
Y.M. Li
Affiliation:
Solarex Thin Film Division, 826 Newtown-Yardley Rd., Newtown, PA., 18940.
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Abstract

The optical properties of solar cell grade hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) and silicon carbon (a-SiC:H) alloy thin films have been investigated over a wide photon energy range (0.8–4.8 eV) using a combination of subgap photoconductivity, reflection and transmission, and spectroscopie ellipsometry techniques in order to obtain accurate optical functions for solar cell modelling. Studies on films with thicknesses ranging from a few hundred Å to a few microns show that the optical spectra obtained by the different techniques agree closely over the energy ranges of overlap and display no thickness dependence from the Urbach tail energies and above. Thus, the results appear to be free of measurement and sample related artifacts. Three different methods provide a common value for the optical gap within ±0.02 eV and the result for a-Si:H is ∼0.1 eV below the mobility gap.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 258: Symposium A – Amorphous Silicon Technology – 1992 , 1992 , 595
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

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References

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