Two-Step Capacitance Transients From an Oxygen Impurity Defect

2008 ◽  
Vol 1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shouvik Datta ◽  
J. David Cohen ◽  
Yueqin Xu ◽  
Howard M. Branz

ABSTRACTThis paper describes the study of an electron-trapping defect which underwent significant configurational relaxation in oxygen contaminated hydrogenated amorphous silicon-germanium (a-Si,Ge:H) alloys grown by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition. An unusual two-step electron emission from this relaxed defect is studied using junction-capacitance-based measurements. In this work, we monitor the recovery of the relaxed defect after filling it by photoexcited electrons and also by electrons injected with a voltage filling pulse. The dependence of the transient shape on filling pulse time is described. We have also performed experiments which clearly demonstrate that this is a bulk defect and exclude contributions from any additional blocking junctions.

1998 ◽  
Vol 507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent P. Nelson ◽  
Yueqin Xu ◽  
D.L. Williamson ◽  
Bolko Von Roedern ◽  
Alice Mason ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWe successfully grow high-quality hydrogenated amorphous-silicon-germanium alloys (a-SiGe:H) by the hot-wire chemical-vapor deposition (HWCVD) technique using silane and germane gas mixtures. These alloys display electronic properties as good as those grown by the plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD) technique, when comparing materials with the same optical bandgaps. However, we grow materials with good electrical properties at high deposition rates—up to 40 Å/s, compared to 1–4 Å/s for PECVD materials. Our alloys exhibit similar trends with increasing Ge content to alloys grown by PECVD. The defect density, the dark conductivity, and the degree of nanostructural heterogeneity (as measured by small-angle X-ray scattering) all increase with increasing germanium content in the alloy. The nanostructural heterogeneity displays a sharp transition between 9 at.% and 14 at.% germanium. PECVD- grown a-SiGe:H alloys exhibit a similar transition at 20 at.% Ge. The photoconductivity and the ambipolar diffusion length of the alloys decrease with increasing germanium content. For a fixed silane-to-germane gas ratio, all material properties improve substantially when increasing substrate temperature (Tsub) from 220°C to 375°C. Increasing Tsub also narrows the optical bandgap and lowers the hydrogen content in the alloys for the same germane-to-silane gas ratio.


2012 ◽  
Vol 569 ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
Bao Jun Yan ◽  
Lei Zhao ◽  
Ben Ding Zhao ◽  
Jing Wei Chen ◽  
Hong Wei Diao ◽  
...  

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon germanium thin films (a-SiGe:H) were prepared via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). By adjusting the flow rate of GeH4, a-SiGe:H thin films with narrow bandgap (Eg) were fabricated with high Ge incorporation. It was found that although narrow Eg was obtained, high Ge incorporation resulted in a great reduction of the thin film photosensitivity. This degradation was attributed to the increase of polysilane-(SiH2)n, which indicated a loose and disordered microstructure, in the films by systematically investigating the optical, optoelectronic and microstructure properties of the prepared a-SiGe:H thin films via transmission, photo/dark conductivity, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements. Such investigation provided a helpful guide for further preparing narrow Eg a-SiGe:H materials with good optoelectronic properties.


1985 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Itozaki ◽  
N. Fujita ◽  
H. Hitotsuyanagi

AbstractHydrogenated amorphous silicon germanium (a—SiGe:H) films were deposited by photo—chemical vapor deposition (Photo—CVD) of SiH4 and GeH4 with mercury sensitizer. Their band gap was controlled from 0.9 eV to 1.9 eV by changing the gas ratio of SiH4 and GeH4. High quality opto—electrical properties have been obtained for thea—SiGe:H films by Photo—CVD. Hydrogen termination and microstructure of a-SiGe:H were investigated by infrared absorption and transmission electron microscopy. Ana—Si:H solar cell and an a—Si:H/a—SiGe:H stacked solar cell were made, each of which has conversion efficiency 5.3% and 5.1%, respectively.


2005 ◽  
Vol 862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shouvik Datta ◽  
J. David Cohen ◽  
Yueqin Xu ◽  
A. H. Mahan

AbstractWe report novel material properties of a series of a-Si,Ge:H alloys grown by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition under low filament temperature (˜1800°C) and low substrate temperature (˜200-300°C). These alloys exhibit significantly improved electronic properties including low defect densities and sharp band tails (Urbach energies ≤ 45meV even for Ge fractions as high as 47at.%). On the other hand, comparisons of the transient photocapacitance and transient photocurrent spectra do not indicate very efficient hole collection in these materials. We found two distinct regimes of light-induced degradation in the alloy sample with 29at.% Ge fraction, possibly corresponding to the light induced increase of Ge and Si dangling bonds, respectively.


1990 ◽  
Vol 192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideki Matsumura ◽  
Masaaki Yamaguchi ◽  
Kazuo Morigaki

ABSTRACTHydrogenated amorphous silicon-germanium (a-SiGe:H) films are prepared by the catalytic chemical vapor deposition (Cat-CVD) method using a SiH4, GeH4 and H4 gas mixture. Properties of the films are investigated by the photo-thermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS) and electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements, in addition to the photo-conductive and structural studies. It is found that the characteristic energy of Urbach tail, ESR spin density and other photo-conductive properties of Cat-CVD a-SiGe:H films with optical band gaps around 1.45 eV are almost equivalent to those of the device quality glow discharge hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H).


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