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Defect Properties of Cathode Deposited Glow Discharge Amorphous Silicon Germanium Alloys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Fan Zhong ,
Chih-Chiang Chen ,
J. David Cohen ,
Paul Wickboldt  and
William Paul
Fan Zhong
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Materials Science Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403
Chih-Chiang Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Materials Science Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403
J. David Cohen
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Materials Science Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403
Paul Wickboldt
Affiliation:
Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
William Paul
Affiliation:
Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Abstract

We have characterized the deep defect densities and their energy distributions for a series of a-Si1-xGex:H alloys with large Ge content (0.57< × < 1.00) prepared by the cathode deposited glow discharge method. Our results indicate markedly superior properties for these samples. A small Urbach tail slope (about 45meV) was found for all samples in this alloy range. The defect densities were either obtained directly from the drive-level capacitance profiling or deduced from the sub-band-gap optical spectra. Both are substantially lower than the trend line determined from previous studies of a-Si1-xGex:H samples produced by conventional glow discharge and by Photo-CVD methods. However, the relation between the total defect densities and the optical spectra in the cathodic samples obeys the same defect formation model that has been used to successfully predict the defect densities in other types of a-Si1-xGex:H material.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 377: Symposium A – Amorphous Silicon Technology 1995 , 1995 , 553
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

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References

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