Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
Measurements are reported of metastable defect states in undoped a-Si: H, with the aim of understanding the relation between the different types of metastability. The temperature dependence of the thermal equilibrium defect density agrees well with a proposed thermodynamic model and their relaxation time varies with deposition conditions. The rate of light induced defect creation and annealing in samples deposited at low temperature and with a large initial defect density, decreases progressively as the irreversible defects are removed by annealing.