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Charge Transport in the Transition From Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon to Microcrystalline Silicon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

A. Kattwinkel ,
R. Braunstein ,
G. Sun  and
Qi Wang
A. Kattwinkel
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024
R. Braunstein
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024
G. Sun
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Qi Wang
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401-3393
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Abstract

The electronic transport properties of a series of samples prepared by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition with a transition from a-Si:H to μc-Si:H were measured applying the photoconductive frequency mixing technique. We found both improved stability against light-soaking and different values for the photomixing electron lifetime and mobility close to the onset of microcrystallinity as compared to the amorphous state. In particular, the mobility-lifetime product of charge carriers in some of the μc-Si:H samples turns out to lie about two orders of magnitude higher than that of a-Si:H films. The mobility on the other hand, is shown rather to decrease in the transition to the μc-region. Additional measurements of the range and the depth of long range potential fluctuations yield a possible explanation for our results in that grain boundaries may serve as scattering centers and barriers against recombination.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 557: Symposium A – Amorphous and Heterogeneous Silicon Thin Films—Fundamentals to Devices—1999 , 1999 , 543
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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