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Structural Defects in Amorphous Silicon Probed by Sub-Picosecond Photocarrier Dynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

P.A. Stolk
Affiliation:
FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
S. Roorda
Affiliation:
FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
L. Calcagnile
Affiliation:
FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
W.C. Sinke
Affiliation:
FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
H.B. Van Linden Van Den Heuvell
Affiliation:
FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
F.W. Saris
Affiliation:
FOM-Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Abstract

The dynamics of a photogenerated electron-hole plasma in pure amorphous silicon (a-Si) in different stages of structural relaxation have been studied with sub-picosecond resolution using pump-probe reflectivity measurements. For high plasma densities (> 1020/cm3) the plasma evolution is dominated by Auger recombination. At lower plasma densities (≈ 1018/cm3) the plasma decays exponentially with a time constant τ, suggesting that carrier trapping dominates in this regime. The decay time τ increases with the temperature at which the a-Si has been annealed, ranging from τ = 1 ps for as-implanted a-Si to τ=14 ps for a-Si annealed at 500 °C. This observation is consistent with a reduction in the number of defects in a-Si upon thermal annealing.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

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