Amorphous silicon film prepared by a glow discharge and its applications

Abstract

The preparation and properties are reviewed of an amorphous silicon film deposited by a glow discharge in SiH4. The amorphous silicon film prepared by this glow discharge has some properties superior to single crystal silicon. For example, it possesses a higher optical absorption, a higher dark resistivity, and a higher photoconductivity. It offers great promise for use in several semiconductor devices, especially lowcost solar cells. The photovoltaic performance of amorphous silicon solar cells is described. Today's cell conversion eflidiency of 7% is a substantial improvement over the efficiency of about 2% reported at the time of initial development in 1975. These amorphous silicon solar cells are now marketed in consumer products such as calculators. This paper also describes the application of amorphous silicon to a thin-film insulated-gate fieldeffect transistor, a visicon target, and a photo-receptor for electrophotography.