Experimental Evidence for the Applicability of an Effective Temperature Concept inaSi:H

Abstract
We have tested the validity of the effective temperature approach in amorphous semiconductors by performing high electric field (104 - 105 V/cm) photoconductivity measurements in intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (aSi:H) films at low temperatures. Our results on thermal quenching in aSi:H conclusively show that there is an equivalence between electric field and temperature as required by the effective temperature approach for electrons. We find a different functional dependence of the electron effective emperature on the actual temperature and field from the one previously proposed. We propose that a similar effective temperature can be formulated for holes.