Light-induced defect creation in hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) was considered in terms of a model based upon the breaking of weak Si–Si bonds by self-trapping of holes under illumination. In this model, 2 separate dangling bonds, i.e., a normal dangling bond and a H-related dangling bond that was a dangling bond having H at a nearby site, were created under illumination. Furthermore, account was taken of the dissociation of H atoms from H-related dangling bonds, termination of two types of dangling bonds by dissociated H atoms (metastable H atoms), insertion of dissociated H atoms into nearby weak Si–Si bonds, and formation of H molecules by collision of dissociated H atoms. Taking into account these processes, rate equations governing the kinetics of 2 types of dangling bond and metastable H atoms under illumination were numerically solved for the case of continuous illumination. The calculated results were compared with experimental results taken from literature. Furthermore, the case of low-temperature illumination, the kinetics of light-induced dangling bonds given by stretched exponential function, and saturated density of light-induced dangling bonds in a-Si:H were considered.

Modeling of Light-Induced Defect Creation in Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon. K.Morigaki, H.Hikita: Physical Review B, 2007, 76[8], 085201