KINETICS OF ANNEALING OF DANGLING BONDS IN SPUTTERED AMORPHOUS-SILICON AND HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON

The kinetics of thermal annealing of dangling bonds created during preparation of amorphous Si (a-Si) and hydrogenated amorphous Si (a Si:H) films by sputtering has been investigated on the basis of electron spin resonance experiments. Changes in the spin density with annealing time up to 120 min were measured as a function of annealing temperature ranging from 150 to 350 degrees C for a-Si and from 150 to 200 degrees C for a-Si:H. It is shown that the annealing behaviour with time is well fitted by a stretched-exponential function rather than by a bimolecular decay function. This suggests that the annealing kinetics of dangling bonds for both a-Si and a-Si : H can be accounted for by a dispersive process.