EFFECT OF CHARGE ON BOND STRENGTH IN HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON

We have studied the effect of excess charge on the bond strength in th e silanes SiH4 and Si2H6 to assess whether charge trapping in a solid- state lattice might promote the technologically important photodegrada tion of amorphous silicon alloys (the Staebler-Wronski effect). The ca lculations indicate that both positive and negative charges reduce the strength of Si-H and Si-Si bonds considerably, to the point where the y may be broken easily by visible or even infrared light. (C) 1994 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.