EXPERIMENTAL-EVIDENCE FOR THE APPLICABILITY OF AN EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE CONCEPT IN A-SI-H

We have tested the validity of the effective temperature approach in a morphous semiconductors by performing high electric field (10(4)-10(5) V/cm) photoconductivity measurements in intrinsic hydrogenated amorph ous silicon (a-Si:H) films at low temperatures. Our results on thermal quenching in a-Si:H conclusively show that there is an equivalence be tween electric field and temperature as required by the effective temp erature approach for electrons. We find a different functional depende nce of the electron effective temperature on the actual temperature an d field from the one previously proposed. We propose that a similar ef fective temperature can be formulated for holes.