The influence of aluminium upon electronic transport in r.f. sputtered amorphous Si : H

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Abstract
A range of specimens has been prepared in which aluminium is introduced into hydrogenated amorphous silicon by a co-sputtering technique? With increasing aluminium content, the activation energy of the dark d.c. conductivity and the optical energy gap are both found to decrease, whilst the magnitude of the d.c. conductivity is increased at all temperatures within the range of study. The inclusion of aluminium is found to quench the photoconductivity to a level below the resolution of the measurement system. Thermoelectric power measurements on films with a high aluminium content indicate that transport is dominated by holes. The data are interpreted in terms of the semiconducting properties of a silicon-aluminium alloy. High-temperature transport is dominated by holes in extended valence-band states, whilst at low temperatures carrier motion is through localized states situated between the Fermi level and the valence-band mobility edge.

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