Thermoelectric power, photo and dark conductivity of doped amorphous silicon

Abstract

Conductivity, photoconductivity and thermopower measurements have been made as functions of temperature on a series of p- and n-type a-Si: H films prepared by a reactive, evaporation method. The results have been fitted with a model including two conduction paths: in the high-temperature range through extended band states and in the low-temperature range as hopping in an impurity band, whose density of states increases with increasing dopant content. A shift of the Fermi level up to 0.4 eV towards the mobility edges for both types of dopants has been found. Moreover, phosphorus doping radiply increases the photoconductivity values by about two orders of magnitude, while boron incorporation causes considerable reduction.