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Measure of carrier lifetime in nanocrystalline silicon thin films using transmission modulated photoconductive decay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Brian J. Simonds ,
Baojie Yan ,
Guozhen Yue ,
Donald Dunlavy ,
Richard K. Ahrenkiel  and
Craig Taylor
Brian J. Simonds
Affiliation:
bsimonds@mines.edu, Colorado School of Mines, Physics, 1523 Illinois St., Golden, Colorado, 80401, United States
Baojie Yan
Affiliation:
byan@scholarone.com, United States
Guozhen Yue
Affiliation:
gyue@uni-solar.com, United Solar Ovonic, LLC, Troy, Michigan, United States
Donald Dunlavy
Affiliation:
djdunlavy@aol.com, Colorado School of Mines, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Golden, Colorado, United States
Richard K. Ahrenkiel
Affiliation:
rahrenki@mines.edu, Colorado School of Mines, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Golden, Colorado, United States
Craig Taylor
Affiliation:
pctaylor@mines.edu, Colorado School of Mines, Physics, Golden, Colorado, United States
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Abstract

We present results of extremely short carrier lifetime measurements on a series of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) thin films by a novel, non-destructive, non-contact method. Transmission modulated photoconductive decay (TMPCD) is a newly developed technique which appears to have high enough sensitivity and time resolution to measure the extremely short carrier lifetimes on the order of a nanosecond. As a proof of this, we measure various nc-Si:H samples of varying crystalline volume fraction as well as a fully amorphous sample. To ascribe an effective lifetime to the materials, we use a simple model which assumes a single exponential decay. By using this model, effective lifetimes can be deconvoluted from our pump beam giving nanosecond lifetimes. Lifetimes of between 1.9 and 0.9 nanoseconds are reported and trend to decreasing lifetimes as crystalline volume fraction is increased.

Keywords

amorphousphotoconductivitySi
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1245: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology-2010 , 2010 , 1245-A16-11
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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