Electronic mobility gap structure and deep defects in amorphous silicon-germanium alloys

Abstract

Amorphous hydrogenated silicon-germanium alloys have been studied using a variety of junction-capacitance techniques to establish the dependence of the mobility gap electronic structure and the density of deep defects on the germanium content. The Urbach tail slope is observed to be nearly constant over the whole alloy range. The energy position of the dominant deep defect band near midgap is deduced and evidence for a shallower unoccupied defect band undergoing a large lattice relaxation is also observed. The total density of deep defects is found to increase exponentially with increasing germanium content and the details of this increase are shown to be consistent with a weak bond to dangling bond conversion model.