INFLUENCE OF ANNEALING ABOVE THE DEPOSITION TEMPERATURE ON METASTABILITY IN AMORPHOUS-SILICON

We have examined a thermally induced increase in the metastable defect density in a series of amorphous hydrogenated silicon samples deposit ed by the hot wire technique with different bonded hydrogen content. W e observed a correlation between the excess defect density as measured after light soaking and as measured after thermal quenching. When the small H content (1-4 at.%) samples with reduced metastability were an nealed to above their deposition temperatures, they then displayed a s ignificantly increased metastable defect density compared to their ori ginal values. We suggest that the microstructure of amorphous silicon determines the magnitude of metastability.