scholarly journals Direct measurement of gap-state absorption in hydrogenated amorphous silicon by photothermal deflection spectroscopy

1982 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 5559-5562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren B. Jackson ◽  
Nabil M. Amer
2009 ◽  
Vol 1153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Simonds ◽  
Feng Zhu ◽  
Josh Gallon ◽  
Jian Hu ◽  
Arun Madan ◽  
...  

AbstractHydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide alloys are being investigated as a possible top photoelectrode in photoelectrochemical cells used for hydrogen production through water splitting. In order to be used as such, it is important that the effects of carbon concentration on bonding, and thus on the electronic and optical properties, is well understood. Electron spin resonance experiments were performed under varying experimental conditions to study the defect concentrations. The dominant defects are silicon dangling bonds. At room temperature, the spin densities varied between 1016 and 1018 spins/cm3 depending on the carbon concentration. Photothermal deflection spectroscopy, which is an extremely sensitive measurement of low levels of absorption in thin films, was performed to investigate the slope of the Urbach tail. These slopes are 78 meV for films containing the lowest carbon concentration and 98 meV for those containing the highest carbon concentration.


1985 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. L. Chu ◽  
Shirley S. Chu ◽  
S. T. Ang ◽  
D. H. Lo ◽  
A. Duong ◽  
...  

AbstractThe thermal decomposition of disilane in a hydrogen or helium flow has been used for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films on the surface of several substrates at 450°-500°C. The concentration of disilane in the reaction mixture has been found to affect strongly the deposition rate and the photoconductivity of a-Si:H films. The AMI conductivity of a-Si:H films increases with increasing disilane concentration and approaches lO−5(ohm-cm)−l at disilane concentrations higher than about 4%, and the conductivity ratio is about lO5. The density of gap states in CVD a-Si:H films have been determined by the photothermal deflection spectroscopy, capacitancetemperature, capacitance-frequency, and space-charged-limited current measurements with similar results.


1998 ◽  
Vol 507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shenlin Chen ◽  
P. C. Taylor ◽  
J. M. Viner

ABSTRACTHydrogenated amorphous silicon alloyed with selenium has been made by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The activation energy for electrical conduction is essentially unchanged for selenium concentrations < 1 at.%. The photo conductivity changes for selenium concentrations > 0.5 at. %. Photothermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS) and electron spin resonance (ESR), respectively, show that the width of the valence band tail states and the density of neutral silicon dangling bonds also change for selenium concentrations > 0.5 at. %.


1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 824-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Beaudoin ◽  
M. Meunier ◽  
T. Muschik ◽  
R. Schwarz ◽  
C. J. Arsenault ◽  
...  

Optical and structural measurements are presented for glow discharge multilayer structures of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiNx:H). Two sets of samples are presented. For set A, the barrier thickness as well as the number of double layers are kept constant whereas, for set B, samples have both constant composition and total thickness. Small-angle X-ray reflectivity measurements (reflectometry) are analyzed using a theoretical model based on the transfer matrix method. This analysis yields an effective width between 1.5 and 2.0 nm for the interfaces. The increase of the Urbach slope parameter with decreasing well layer thickness is measured by photothermal deflection spectroscopy and by Fourier transform photoacoustic spectroscopy. This dependence is analyzed by taking into account the effective interface thickness and it is studied by using the optical absorption model of Abe and Toyozawa (J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 50, 2185 (1981)). Both sets of samples show the same behavior, which leads to the conclusion that the Urbach slope increase is due to interface effects.


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