SENSITIZATION OF THE MINORITY-CARRIER LIFETIME IN HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON

While sensitization of the photoconductivity, i.e., the increase of th e majority carrier lifetime by the addition of recombination centers, is known for many years, there was no evidence or suggestion for the c orresponding sensitization of the minority carrier lifetime. In this l etter, we present experimental evidence for the existence of such an e ffect in device quality undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon films. We propose possible scenarios that can yield the observed effect and m ention the possible benefits of the minority carrier sensitization for the improvement of bipolar optoelectronic devices made of this materi al. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.