Experimental Determination of the Distribution of Tail States of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon: A Transient Photocurrent Analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecent experimental developments have cast doubt on the validity of the common assumption that the distribution of tail states of hydrogenated amorphous silicon exhibits a single exponential functional form. We employ transient photocurrent decay measurements to determine this distribution of tail states. In our approach, however, we determine the distribution of tail states directly from the experimental data, without assuming, a priori, a specific functional form. It is found that these experimental results are consistent with other more recent experimental determinations of the distribution of tail states, suggesting the possibility of deviations from a single exponential distribution of tail states in hydrogenated amorphous silicon.