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Two Carrier Sensitization as a Spectroscopic Tool for a-Si:H

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

L.F. Fonseca ,
S.Z. Weisz ,
R. Rapaport  and
I. Balberg
L.F. Fonseca
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico San Juan00931, PR
S.Z. Weisz
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico San Juan00931, PR
R. Rapaport
Affiliation:
The Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
I. Balberg
Affiliation:
The Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
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Abstract

In a recent letter we have reported the first observation of the phenomenon of minority carrier-lifetime sensitization in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). We find now that combining the study of this phenomenon with the study of the well-known phenomenon of majority carrier lifetime sensitization, in this material, can provide direct information on its density of states (DOS) distribution. This finding is important in view of the limitations associated with other methods designed for the same purpose. We have carried out then an experimental study of the effect of light soaking on the phototransport in a-Si:H. We found that the increase of the dangling bond concentration with light soaking affects the sensitization and thermal quenching of the majority carriers lifetime. Using computer simulations, we further show that the details of the observations associated with the sensitization effect yield semiquantitative information on the concentration and character of the recombination centers in a-Si:H.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 557: Symposium A – Amorphous and Heterogeneous Silicon Thin Films—Fundamentals to Devices—1999 , 1999 , 439
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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