Fingerprints of two distinct defects causing light-induced photoconductivity degradation in hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Abstract

We find distinct experimental fingerprints of two metastable defects created during illumination of hydrogenated amorphous silicon. The well-studied threefold-coordinated silicon dangling bond defect has an anneal activation energy near 1.1 eV and dominates annealing experiments above about 110 °C. The second defect created by illumination is the “primary recombination” (pr) center, which causes most of the light-induced photoconductivity decrease and dominates annealing experiments below about 110 °C. Because the pr centers are created in linear proportion to the dangling bond defects, they are difficult to distinguish during degradation. However, we observe clear fingerprints of the pr center during their low T annealing: (1) an anneal activation energy of 0.85 eV; (2) a sharp increase in photoconductivity; and (3) a surprising increase in hν⩽1.1 eV optical absorption.