Trapping phenomena in intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon like materials studied using current transient spectroscopies

Transient spectroscopies such as time analyzed transients spectroscopy (TATS) provide powerful means of comparing density of states in new forms of amorphous like materials. These spectroscopies were utilized to study hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and hydrogenated polymorphous silicon (pm-Si:H) grown at different pressures using PECVD. The results reveal marked differences between the two materials. In case of a-Si:H, as expected characteristic emission from a broad density of states in the form of stretched exponentials is observed. The corresponding spectra for pm-Si:H, on the other hand are dominated by nearly exponential fast current decay processes with discrete energies between 0.25 eV and 0.36 eV. The spectra of pm-Si:H grown at different pressures show contributions from crystallite inclusions and the medium in varying degree. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.