Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Hydrogenated amorphous silicon containing chlorine (a-Si:H (Cl)) films have been grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition from a mixture of silane and dichlorosilane with a dichlorosilane concentration up to 60%. We report on the film properties in the as-deposited state and the behavior of the films under both high intensity pulsed laser illumination and long-term AMI illumination. With increasing dichlorosilane concentration the films show an increased resilience to the creation of light induced defects, as determined from the constant photocurrent method. After 900 hours under AMI illumination, the defect density shows a minimum (< 1016 cnr−3) for a 10 % mixing ratio.