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Structural Changes in a-Si:H Studied by X-Ray Photoemission Spectroscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Shuran Sheng ,
Edward Sacher ,
Arthur Yelon ,
Howard M. Branz  and
Denis P. Masson
Shuran Sheng
Affiliation:
Groupe de Recherche en Physique et Technologie des Couches Minces & Département de Génie Physique et de Génie des Matériaux, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal (Québec) H3C 3A7 Canada
Edward Sacher
Affiliation:
Groupe de Recherche en Physique et Technologie des Couches Minces & Département de Génie Physique et de Génie des Matériaux, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal (Québec) H3C 3A7 Canada
Arthur Yelon
Affiliation:
Groupe de Recherche en Physique et Technologie des Couches Minces & Département de Génie Physique et de Génie des Matériaux, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal (Québec) H3C 3A7 Canada
Howard M. Branz
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Denis P. Masson
Affiliation:
Nortel Technology, Ottawa (Ontario) K 1Y 4H7, Canada
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Abstract

X-ray irradiation-induced structural changes in undoped a-Si:H have been investigated in detail by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). The Si2s and the Si2p peaks were found to shift simultaneously to lower bonding energies, by the same amount, with X-ray irradiation. The shifts are near saturation, at about 0.1 eV, after one hour of irradiation at the intensity used; they can be reversed almost completely, seemingly with an activation energy lower than that for the metastable changes in electronic properties (Staebler-Wronski effect). The present results suggest that essentially the whole Si network structure is affected by the X-ray irradiation.

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