DEMONSTRATION OF A NEW TOOL FOR DEGRADATION OF AMORPHOUS HYDROGENATED SILICON AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FERMI LEVEL SHIFT

We introduce the pulsed Ruby laser as a new efficient degradation tool for amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H). We present the degradation dynamics and the saturated values of the density of states (DOS) and the room temperature conductivity. Comparison of two samples with different impurity content indicates the impurity-related initial Fermi level shift. By a simple model we illustrate the influence of this shift on the initial stage of degradation (its acceleration or delay) and consequently, also on the saturated DOS.