The tunneling effective mass of electrons in undoped a-Si:H has been determined from measurements on Schottky diodes operating with high reverse fields. Under these conditions, the change of current with electric field is a sensitive function of effective mass. The tunneling effective mass was measured to be 0.09±0.02 me for a range of different samples giving a tunneling constant of ≊40 Å.

Photon-emission experiments on silicon-rich hydrogenated amorphous silicon-nitride metal–semiconductor–metal diodes, have shown the existence of hot electrons under applied field strengths of approximately 106 V/cm. The effective temperatures and mean free path between collision for the electrons were estimated from the spectra. It is shown that, in general, asymmetrical changes in the electrical characteristics of the devices occur after prolonged dc stressing at high fields. Two drift mechanisms can be distinguished. The first is called ‘‘cathodic’’ drift and is driven by recombination between band-tail carriers in the semiconductor. The other is called ‘‘anodic’’ drift, and results from the effects of hot electrons at the anode. The spatial and time dependence of these drift mechanism is explained using a simple model.

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