Creation And Annealing Kinetics Of Light Induced Metastable Defects In aSi1-xCx:H

Abstract

We have used the Constant Photocurrent Method and steady-state photoconductivity measurements to investigate the creation and annealing kinetics of light induced metastable defects, and their effect on photocarrier lifetimes, in a set of good quality a-Si1-xCx:H alloys (x ≤ 0.11) at room temperature. The annealing activation energy distribution for the alloys was deduced using the method proposed by Hata and Wagner [1]. A narrow Gaussian distribution of annealing activation energies, peaking at about 1 eV, accounts for the observed annealing behaviour for the unalloyed sample. For the alloys, the peak positions of the Gaussian distributions shift to higher energies, and their half-widths decrease with increasing carbon content. The relationship between the inverse mobility-lifetime product and the light induced metastable defect density during the creation and annealing cycles were also investigated for these alloys.