Light-Induced Metastable Defects or Light-Induced Metastable H Atoms in a-Si:H Films?

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films, the increase of the metastable defect density under high-intensity illumination is usually described by an empirical two-parameter stretched-exponential time dependence (characteristic time τSE and dispersion parameter β). In this study, a clearly different (one-parameter) analytic function is obtained from a microscopic model based on the formation of metastable H (MSH) atoms in a-Si:H films. Assuming that MSH atoms are the only mobile species, only three chemical reactions are significant : MSH are produced from doubly hydrogenated (SiH HSi) configurations and trapped either at broken bonds or Si-H bonds, corresponding respectively to light-induced annealing (LIA) and light-induced creation (LIC) of defects. Competition between trapping sites results in a saturation of N(t) at a steady-state value Nss. A one-parameter fit of this analytical function to experimental data is generally good, indicating that the use of a statistical distribution of trap energies is not necessary.