Temperature dependence of steady-state photoconductivity in hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Abstract

This work investigates the steady-state photoconductivity in hydrogenated amorphous silicon taking into account an exponential distribution of conduction-and valence-band tails and the dangling-bond defect states. Thermal quenching of photoconductivity is also explained; its activation energy at different light intensities is related to the electron quasi-Fermi level. The calculation presented here gives a broad picture of the overall photoconductivity characteristics and also allows the energy location of the doubly occupied dangling-bond state to be obtained.