Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-2l2gl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T21:12:48.524Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

General Explanation of Bias-Anneal Effects in a-Si:H

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

David Redfield*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Stanford University - Stanford, CA 94305–2205
Get access

Abstract

A new explanation is offered for the metastable changes caused by combined electric field and elevated temperature in properties of a-Si:H such as doping efficiency, solar-cell efficiency, and “structural relaxation.” This explanation is based on properties of the localized centers that are associated with the light-induced Staebler-Wronski effect and solar-cell degradation. The newfeature is recognition that the metastable state of these localized centers is more polarizable than the ground state, so that afield increases the energy difference between the two states. Then, when the temperature is high enough to permit transitions, the density of metastable defects decreases, producing the observed effects. This explanation is general in the sense that it does not depend on any atomic model of the centers involved.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Lang, D., Cohen, J., and Harbison, J., Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 421 (1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Swartz, G., Appl. Phys. Lett. 44, 697 (1984).Google Scholar
3. Street, R. and Kakalios, J., Phil. Mag. B 54, L21 (1986).Google Scholar
4. Staebler, D. and Wronski, C., Appl. Phys. Lett. 31, 292 (1977).Google Scholar
5. Redfield, D., Appl. Phys. Lett. 52, 492 (1988).Google Scholar
6. Redfield, D., J. Non-Cryst. Solids 97 & 98, 783 (1987).Google Scholar
7. Robertson, J., in Optical Effects in Amorphous Semiconductors, AIP Conf. Proc. No. 120, 63, (1984).Google Scholar