Abstract
Hydrogenated amorphous thin films of Si1-xAgx have been prepared by a radiofrequency sputtering technique. The absorption coefficient and band gap of the film were determined from the optical measurements within the 0.5 to 3.0 eV photon energy region. For the alloys considered-with up to 6% of Ag-the square root of the product of the absorption coefficient and the photon energy is found to be proportional to the photon energy in the higher-energy region and the optical band gap is found to decrease with the increase in the concentration of Ag. The band gap obtained for a-Si is about 1.5 eV, which is in good agreement with the values reported by previous workers.