Si and nitrogen dangling bond defects in amorphous silicon nitride a-S
INx:H are most stable in their charged, diamagnetic states. Excitation
to their paramagnetic states is found to occur by both charge convers
ion of Si defects or N defects or by charge transfer between Si and N
defects. The stability of charged defects is modelled in terms of pote
ntial fluctuations whose magnitude exceeds their positive correlation
energy.