Electronic transport analysis by electron-beam-induced current at variable energy of thin-film amorphous semiconductors

Najar, S.; Equer, B.; Lakhoua, N.

doi:10.1063/1.348459

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The electron hole recombination can in turn break Si-H bonds to produce mobile H and DBs (dangling bonds). 27 While traversing the matrix, the b particles lose energy rapidly with depth and the effective active depth for electrons with energy of $5.7 keV is around 50 nm in a-Si:H. 28 Within this depth, extra DBs will be created and provide for the hydrogen (tritium) accommodation. This is consistent with the tritium depth observed in Fig.…”

Section: A Tritium Solubilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-irradiation enhanced tritium solubility in hydrogenated amorphous and crystalline silicon

Liu¹,

Chen²,

Kherani³

et al. 2011

Journal of Applied Physics

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Experimental results on tritium effusion, along with the tritium depth profiles, from hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and crystalline silicon (c-Si) tritiated in tritium (T2) gas at various temperatures and pressures are presented. The results indicate that tritium incorporation is a function of the material microstructure of the as-grown films, rather than the tritium exposure condition. The highest tritium concentration obtained is for a-Si:H deposited at a substrate temperature of 200°C. The tritium content is about 20 at. % on average with a penetration depth of about 50 nm. In contrast, tritium occluded in the c-Si is about 4 at. % with penetration depth of about 10 nm. The tritium concentration observed in a-Si:H and c-Si is much higher than the reported results for the post-hydrogenation process. β irradiation appears to catalyze the tritiation process and enhance tritium dissolution in the silicon matrix. The combination of tritium decay and β-induced ionizations results in formation of reactive species of tritium (tritium atoms, radicals, and ions) that readily adsorb on silicon. The electron bombardment of the silicon surface and subsurface renders it chemically active thereby promoting surface adsorption and subsurface diffusion of tritium, thus leading to tritium occlusion in the silicon matrix. Gaussian deconvolution of tritium effusion spectra yields two peaks for a-Si:H films tritiated at high temperature (250°C), one low temperature (LT) peak which is attributed to tritiated clusters and higher order tritides, and another high temperature peak which is attributed to monotritides. Activation energy of 2.6–4.0 eV for the LT peak was found.

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Section: A Tritium Solubilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-irradiation enhanced tritium solubility in hydrogenated amorphous and crystalline silicon

Liu¹,

Chen²,

Kherani³

et al. 2011

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Takahama et al [1] and Fischer [2] have calculated PDICE for amorphous silicon (aSi:H) PIN solar cells using QE experiments. Electron beam-induced current (EBIC) technique at variable electron beam energy has also been used to calculate PDICE [3]. In these methods PDICE at 'm' grid points in the device, must be calculated using the measured QE's at 'n' photon wavelengths or electron beam energies, using matrix inversion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calculation of the position-dependent inner collection efficiency in PIN solar cells using an electrical–optical model

Dutta¹,

Chatterjee²,

Cabarrocas³

et al. 2004

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids

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“…In crystalline materials the electron beam induced current technique (EBIC) has been largely applied either to qualitatively study defects, grain boundary, depletion, and inversion layer as was reported by Lander et al (1963) and MacDonald and Everhart (1965) or to quantitatively investigate transport properties leading to the determination of diffusion length, surface recombination velocity, and lifetime as was reported by Wittry and Keyser (1965), Wu and Wittry (19781, and Leamy (1982). In amorphous silicon, one can expect to derive information from EBIC measurements such as the depth collection profile (Najar et al, 1991), the potential or field distribution, and hopefully the density of gap states (Rajopadhye et al, 1988) and other transport parameters. In these approaches, some calculation parameters need to be known, such as the mean electron hole pair creation energy, the electron energy range, and the electron generation function.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These parameters are generally known in crystalline silicon although some discrepancies exist between measurements (Bresse, 1972). In amorphous silicon, a preliminary study, using both the well known Everhart-Hoff generation function (Everhart and Hoff, 1971) and a Monte-Carlo generation function (Napchan and Hold, 1987), was performed by Najar et al (1991). It was, however, observed that this method is extremely sensitive to the choice of the electron generation function.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

EBIC study of electron generation function in a‐Si:H

Najar

Equer²

1994

Microscopy Res & Technique

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The electron beam induced current technique was used to study electron energy loss in amorphous hydrogenated silicon a-Si:H. This study leads to the determination of the electron generation function which is needed when using the variable energy electron beam induced current technique (EBIC) analysis of a-Si:H device. A series of identical n-i-p a-Si:H diodes with a thin aluminium top electrodes were fabricated and varying thicknesses of a-Si:H layer were deposited on it. In EBIC measurements, the n-i-p diode was reverse biased at maximum potential. The electron range of a-Si:H was determined directly by measuring the energy at which the electron beam is completely stopped in the top layer and no carrier generation is possible in the n-i-p diode. The generation function is then deduced from EBIC contrast measurements between the aluminium electrode and the top a-Si:H layer.

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Electronic transport analysis by electron-beam-induced current at variable energy of thin-film amorphous semiconductors

Abstract: Decay of the electronbeaminduced current in hydrogenated amorphous silicon devices

Cited by 9 publications

References 19 publications

Self-irradiation enhanced tritium solubility in hydrogenated amorphous and crystalline silicon

Self-irradiation enhanced tritium solubility in hydrogenated amorphous and crystalline silicon

Calculation of the position-dependent inner collection efficiency in PIN solar cells using an electrical–optical model

EBIC study of electron generation function in a‐Si:H

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