INFRARED PHOTODETECTION AT ROOM-TEMPERATURE USING PHOTOCAPACITANCE INAMORPHOUS-SILICON STRUCTURES

In this letter we present a device, based on amorphous silicon materia l, able to detect infrared light through capacitance measurement at ro om temperature. The device is a p-c-n stacked structure, where c indic ates a compensated amorphous silicon absorber layer. Operation is base d on transitions between extended states in the valence band and defec ts in the forbidden gap excited by the infrared radiation. We found th at the measured capacitance is sensitive to radiation from 800 nm to 5 mu m. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)02310-9] .