Importance of Charged Dangling Bonds in Explaining the Photodegradation Behavior of Amorphous Silicon Films Prepared by Various Techniques

The assumption that the photodegradation of the coplanar conductivities in amorphous silicon films is a direct consequence of the increase in the number density of neutral dangling bonds was found to be invalid. A model based on the importance of charged dangling bonds was proposed. Through the use of this model, it was shown that the films prepared by the Xe-dilution method, which show a slight increase in the photoconductivity concurrent with an increase in the number density of neutral dangling bonds, preferentially reconfigure positively charged dangling bonds into neutral dangling bonds upon exposure to light.