Abstract
We present results of extremely short carrier lifetime measurements on a series of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) thin films by a novel, non-destructive, non-contact method. Transmission modulated photoconductive decay (TMPCD) is a newly developed technique which appears to have high enough sensitivity and time resolution to measure the extremely short carrier lifetimes on the order of a nanosecond. As a proof of this, we measure various nc-Si:H samples of varying crystalline volume fraction as well as a fully amorphous sample. To ascribe an effective lifetime to the materials, we use a simple model which assumes a single exponential decay. By using this model, effective lifetimes can be deconvoluted from our pump beam giving nanosecond lifetimes. Lifetimes of between 1.9 and 0.9 nanoseconds are reported and trend to decreasing lifetimes as crystalline volume fraction is increased.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. Brinza, Guy J. Adiaenssens, K. Iakoubovskii, A. Stesmans, W.M.M. Kessels, A.H.M. Smets and M.C.M. Van de Sanden, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, v 299-302, p 420–424 (2002).
T. Dylla, S. Reynolds, R. Carius and F. Finger, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, v 352, p 9–20 (2006).
R.I. Devlen, J. Tauc and E.A. Schiff, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, v 114, n Pt2, p 567–569 (1989).
R.K. Ahrenkiel and S.W. Johnston, Mater. Sci. Eng. B102, 161–172 (2003).
C. Swiatkowski, M. Kunst, Appl. Phys. A 61, 623–629 (1995).
G. Yue, L. Sivec, B. Yan, J. Yang, and S. Guha, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 1245, A21.1 (2010).
Richard K. Ahrenkiel and Donald J. Dunlavy, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells (2010).
Kristin Kiriluk, Don Williamson, David Bobela, P. Craig Taylor, Baojie Yan, Jeffrey Yang and Subhendu Guha, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 1245, 13.2 (2010).
E. Bustarret, M. Hachicha and M. Brunel, Appl. Phys. Lett. 52 (1988).
Ch. Ossadnik, S. Veprek and I. Gregora, Thin Film Solids 337 (1999).
L. Fekete, P. Kuzel, H. Nemec, F. Kadlec, A. Dejneka, J. Stuchlik and A. Fejfar, Phys. Rev. B 79 (2009).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Simonds, B.J., Yan, B., Yue, G. et al. Measure of carrier lifetime in nanocrystalline silicon thin films using transmission modulated photoconductive decay. MRS Online Proceedings Library 1245, 1611 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-1245-A16-11
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-1245-A16-11