PULSED-LIGHT SOAKING OF HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON

We investigate in detail the creation of metastable dangling bond defe cts in undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon by illumination with pul sed-light sources. Based on the electron-hole recombination model for defect creation, the kinetics of the defect generation process is anal yzed theoretically for different experimental conditions (pulse length , pulse energy, repetition rate, and average intensity). These theoret ical results are then compared to experimental observations using both monochromatic and polychromatic (''white light'') pulse sources. Impl ications of pulse illumination for accelerated testing of the stabilit y of amorphous-silicon-based solar cells are also discussed.