Minority-carrier diffusion lengths in amorphous silicon-based alloys

Abstract

In this paper, we present results of collection efficiency versus wavelength measurements on thick (⩾1 μm) amorphous silicon Schottky barrier photovoltaic devices illuminated through both the ohmic and Schottky contacts. These results enable us to infer the zero-field minority carrier diffusion length in amorphous silicon-based alloys by using an appropriate theoretical model. For intrinsic a-Si:H (hydrogen) films produced by the glow discharge of silane this was found to be ∼2,100 Å. Our novel approach of illuminating the devices through the ohmic contact ensures that the collection efficiency results are extremely sensitive to the minority carrier diffusion length, and we also compare this approach to surface photovoltage type experiments which we show can lead to overestimation of this quantity.