THE KINK IN THE CONDUCTIVITY CHARACTERISTICS OF UNDOPED A-SI-H - A COMPREHENSIVE PICTURE

We study the well known kink in the Arrhenius plots of the DC conductivity of undoped hydrogenated silicon. The widespread transport model above a mobility edge is assumed and the possible explanations for the kink are reviewed. A careful analysis shows that only thermal-equilibrium processes can account for our present experimental data. Furthermore, we show that the kink temperature is the temperature at which the sample becomes frozen in a non-equilibrium configuration.