ESR AND TRANSPORT IN MICROCRYSTALLINE SILICON

We report on the electron spin resonance and electrically detected mag netic resonance and conductivity of mu c-Si thin films. We have system atically changed the defect density, N-D, by thermally annealing the s amples and found that transport is not controlled by defects if N-D < 10(18)cm(-3). For N-D > 10(18)cm(-3), a decrease of conductivity by al most five orders of magnitude is found and an electrically detected ma gnetic resonance enhancing signal appears in the dark current. The res ults will be discussed in terms of a simple model for barrier-limited transport assuming that all defects are located either at the boundari es of the crystallites or at the boundaries of the columns. (C) 1998 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.