Measurements of depletion layers in hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Abstract

The use of transient photoconductivity for measuring and profiling the depletion-layer electric field in amorphous silicon is described. Charge-collection measurements yield the depletion-layer width, and this technique is used to study various sample structures. The internal-field profile is obtained from the transient photocurrent response. We report measurements on Cr, Pd, and Pt contacts and obtain the built-in potentials and density-of-states data.