High-temperature annealing behavior of μτ products of electrons and holes in a-Si:H

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The mobility‐lifetime products of electrons and holes [(μτ)e and (μτ)h] in undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon samples have been studied by photoconductivity and ambipolar diffusion length measurements. The density of dangling bonds Nd in the samples is changed over a range of 3×1015–2×1018 cm−3 by annealing at high temperatures. Nd and the Urbach tail slope Eov have been determined by the constant photocurrent method. In addition, the optical gap, the activation energy of dark conductivity, and the exponent governing the intensity dependence of σpc have been measured. The results show that there is a correlation between Nd and Eov which is consistent with equilibrium theory. (μτ)e and (μτ)h change in quite different ways as Nd increases, namely, (μτ)e decreases as a linear function of the inverse of Nd. However, (μτ)h remains almost constant when Nd≤5×1016 cm−3, then decreases fast for higher Nd. The asymmetric dependence of transport properties of electrons and holes on Nd suggests that for electrons recombination through dangling bond states is dominant; but, for holes, recombination mainly proceeds through deep band tail states, especially when Nd is relatively low.