Mechanical Spectroscopy Study on the Light Soaking Effect on Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon

Abstract

For hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films deposited at temperatures between 423 K and 623 K (a-Si:H423Kand so on), the light-induced changes in the internal friction between 80 K and 400 K were studied. The internal friction is associated with H2motion in microvoid networks, and shows the mild temperature dependence between about 80 K and 300 K (Q-180-300K) and the almost linear increase above 300 K (Q-1>300K). BothQ-180-300KandQ-1>300Kdecrease with increasing the deposition temperature, and show the mild temperature dependence ina-Si:H623K. The white light soaking with 100 mW/cm2(WLS100and so on) below 300 K caused a change inQ-180-300Kand no changes inQ-1>300K, respectively, and the light-induced changes inQ-180-300Krecovered after annealing at 423 K. The wide distribution of activation energies for H2motions between microvoids indicate that most of neighboring microvoids are connected through windows, i.e., the microvoid networks are existing ina-Si:H, and the spatially loose or solid structures are responsible for the low or high activation energies for the H2motion between microvoids, respectively. Furthermore, the light-induced hydrogen evolution (LIHE) was observed for WLS200to WLS400in a vacuum between 400 and 500 K, resulting in the disappearance of the internal friction due to the H2motion in the microvoid network.