From early on, infants show a preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS), and exposure to IDS has been correlated with language outcome measures such as vocabulary. The present multi-laboratory study explores this issue by investigating whether there is a link between early preference for IDS and later vocabulary size. Infants’ preference for IDS was tested as part of the ManyBabies 1 project, and follow-up CDI data were collected from a subsample of this dataset at 18 and 24 months. A total of 341 (18 months) and 327 (24 months) infants were tested across 21 laboratories. In neither preregistered analyses with North American and UK English, nor exploratory analyses with a larger sample did we find evidence for a relation between IDS preference and later vocabulary. We discuss implications of this finding in light of recent work suggesting that IDS preference measured in the laboratory has low test-retest reliability.

For twenty years we searched to understand the Staebler-Wronski effect (SWE). New results continue to emerge which invalidate prior interpretations. Recent evidence shows that the SWE is not associated with impurities. Long-range hydrogen diffusion is ruled out because the SWE occurs with comparable efficiency between 400K and the lowest temperatures. Nonradiative geminate recombinations might be important since high fields reduce the SWE significantly. It disappears when the bandgap or the photon energy falls below a critical value. The creation of a metastable density of dangling bond defects has been considered to be its sole manifestation. However, there is mounting evidence for light-induced structural changes which extend throughout the material. The weak bond breaking model emerges as the only viable explanation of the SWE if the expected spatial correlation between defects and hydrogen is destroyed by subsequent recombination events. The SWE is reduced by a favorable microstructure and low hydrogen content. It is suggested that defect pairs have larger recombination coefficients than isolated defects.

Space charges build up near one or both electrodes of a photoconductor unless the thermoionic current balances the photocurrent. Space charges built up also when a voltage U is applied at low T to a semiconductor containing a non-equilibrium distribution of carriers. The presence of a space charge is observed as a relaxation-current transient when the sample is illuminated at zero bias. If one type of carrier is immobile the steady state photocurrent becomes zero.

We have observed a pronounced change in the shape of subgap absorption spectrum α(hν) of a-Si:H due to photodegradation at T=4.2K, in contrast to light exposure at T=300K. During the 4.2K exposure, α(hν) at 1.1≤(h‥)≤1.6eV increases with time as (α(t)-α(0)) ∝t0.3. However, for hν≤1eV the absorption α(hν) stays constant or decreases with exposure at 4.2K. Subsequent anneal causes the subgap absorption at the higher photon energies to decrease monotonically while a (hν ≤ 1.1 eV) increases first and goes through a maximum at T≈350K. This unexpected increase in a(hν) during annealing occurs at the anneal temperatures where the degraded mobility-lifetime product recovers. We suggest that the nonmonotonic recovery of a (hν≤ 1.1eV) during annealing is associated with preferential anneal of deeper defects or with structural relaxations around the defects during anneal causing a shift in their energy levels.

The steady state photoconductivity up of n-type, p-type and intrinsic a-Si:H has been studied up to photocarrier generation rates of G=5×1027cm-3s-1. In the 20ppm B2H6/SiH4 p-type sample photoconduction switches from holes at low G to electrons at high G. The electron photoconduction at high G is increased by n-type and decreased by p-type doping. This is explained by the charge state of the dominant electron recombination centers. The σp(G) curves of doped and intrinsic a-Si:H merge at the highest G used.

Quantum confinement effects in the transmission spectrum of thin amorphous silicon, a-Si:H, films require a coherence length comparable to the film thickness, as well as good film homogeneity. After a careful investigation, we conclude that there is no quantum confinement in single layer a-Si:H films at room temperature.

The rise and decay of the photoconductivity σp of intrinsic and strongly p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) samples was studied as a function of photocarrier generation rate G between 4.2K and 300K. In intrinsic samples the temperature regime T<60K of energy-loss hopping is clearly distinguishable from T>80K where thermal re-excitation of photocarriers is possible. For the p-type sample the temperature dividing the two regimes is near 170K. In intrinsic samples the rise of σp is faster when residual photocarriers exist from previous light exposures than when the samples are in the electronic dark equilibrium. This indicates that geminate recombination decreases with increasing photocarrier concentration. In the p-type sample we observe an up to 20 percent overshoot in the rise of σp before σp settles down to its steady state value. This overshoot increases with G. We interpret the overshoot as an interplay of two recombination channels with different time scales.

The electrical conductance and optical absorption coefficient of microcrystalline indium oxide (c – In2 O 3-x ) can be changed reversibly by several orders of magnitude by photoreduction and reoxidation. Photoreduction is achieved by exposure to ultraviolet light hv ≥ 3.5eV in vacuum or an inert gas. The effects are similar to those previously observed in amorphous In2 O3-x

The dark conductivity σ of poorly conducting In2O3-x films can be enhanced by orders of magnitude by blue or UV light exposure at any temperature between 4.2K and 300K. The resulting high σ state of amorphous films reverts back to its original low σ state upon heating to 400K in an inert gas and can be repeated many times. In crystalline films the high σ state is stable to higher temperatures where annealing leads to some outdiffusion of oxygen and hence to a conductivity increase which can only be reversed by external re-oxidation. The photoinduced increase in dark conductivity is accompanied by an increase in photoconductivity at hv = 0.6 or 2eV by a factor of 107 at 4.2K.

The photoconductivities ap of glow discharge deposited a-Ge:H and amorphous Si-Ge alloys prepared in different laboratories were measured between 4.2K and 300K and compared with σp(T) of intrinsic and compensated a-Si:H films. The alloys as well as a-Ge:H do not exhibit thermal quenching of σp(T) at elevated temperatures which suggests that the valence and conduction band tails have similar widths. Remarkable is the near absence of light-induced metastable defects in the alloys as well as in a-Ge:H even after prolonged exposures at low temperatures.

The subgap absorption αcpm measured by the constant photocurrent method (CPM) was studied between 4.2K and 300K for different dopings and defect concentrations N in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). We found that αcpm is reduced by up to a factor 100 between 50K and 200K due to infrared selfquenching which changes the charge state of the defects and enhances recombination. The effect is diminished at high N and large doping. The relative change Δα/α reflects ΔN/N both at very low and high temperatures. For undoped samples αcpm is about four times larger at 4.2K than at 300K. For doped samples the two values are essentially the same.

Dual beam photoconductivity with bandgap primary light and hv = 0.4- 0.6eV infrared light steps was measured with Ims time resolution in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) at 4.2K. The results can be described by assuming that the photocurrent transients are due to energy-loss hopping of photocarriers and that the infrared light promotes recombination by reexciting photocarriers thereby enhancing the probability of tunneling recombination.

An undoped and a compensated a-Si:H sample have been degraded by 17–34 ns laser pulses and by steady light (CW) at 78K and 300K. The light-induced defect concentration N is monitored by the increase in subgap absorption a. For the same change in a pulses degrade the photoconductivity σp more than CW light and more strongly for exposures at 78K than at 300K. The lack of correlation between σp and N suggests that light soaking causes additional damage besides an increase in N. This additional effect is more pronounced for pulse and low temperature exposures.

We used the transient infrared photoconductivity to measure the rise and fall of the non-equilibrium photocarrier concentration n at helium temperatures and the conditions for recombination. The growth rate of n was found to be only a few percent of the electron-hole pair generation rate G in agreement with LESR data of Street and Biegelsen. The saturation value of n is about 1017cm−3 and nearly independent of G. After turning off the generation light, the residual n requires an hour to decrease by a factor 2 but it can be made to recombine in seconds by infrared light.

Comparing the photoconductivity σp of undoped samples with different native defect concentrations we find that light-induced metastable defects decrease the electron lifetime more strongly than the native defects. We discuss the differences between native and metastable dangling bond defects. We find that the constant photocurrent method underestimates the defect concentration in undoped a-Si:H.

We extended the kinetics study of light-induced creation of metastable defects in undoped a-Si:H down to T =4.2K. Using band gap light with photocarrier generation rate G0 =3.8x1021cm-3s-1 we find that the change in metastable defect concentration ΔND depends on exposure time te as tm e with m = 0.35 ±0.02 at 4.2K, 80K and 300K. The dependence of ΔND on generation rate is G0.44 at 4.2K. The relation between ND and photoconductivity at 300K is nonlinear and not single-valued.

The development of shallow ohmic contacts for the thin p-InGaAs layer (p≤1*1019 cm−5) of InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistors is a severe challenge to contact technology. While standard metallizations reveal several drawbacks, Pd/Ge-based systems emerged as promising candidates. In this work, Zn or Cd was implanted into the inner Pd contact layer for lowering contact resistivity. We present a study of the electrical and metallurgical properties of Pd/Ge contacts to p-InGaAs, and the influence of Zn and Cd implanted into the metallization. The resistivity of implanted and annealed (450-575 °C) contacts is reduced up to one order of magnitude compared to the unimplanted contact. Backside SIMS measurements show that annealing leads to a very limited interdiffusion at the interface. Cd and Zn diffuse into the InGaAs layer to a depth of approx. 30 and 40 nm, respectively. Due to these features, this implanted Pd/Ge contact scheme is a promising candidate for shallow contacts to p-InGaAs.

Light exposure of multilayers consisting of alternating 2.5 nm thick a-Si:H and about 40 nm thick a-SiNx:H produces a large metastable excess dark conductance. This appears to be due to metastable defects in a-SiNx:H produced by hopping injection of photocarriers from the a-Si:H. They anneal at an equilibration temperature TE∼460°K. These metastable defects are created with the same efficiency between 4K and 300K. The efficiency rapidly falls above 350K. The metastable defects have the same anneal temperature regardless of creation temperature. The mechanism of defect creation will be compared with that in a-Si:H.