Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T22:22:05.594Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Molecular Dynamics Study of Band Tails in a-Si:H

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Peter A. Fedders and
D. A. Drabold
Peter A. Fedders
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, paf(qwuphys.wustl.edu
D. A. Drabold
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701-2979
Get access

Abstract

Band tail states are routinely invoked in models of a-Si:H including defect pool models and models of light induced defects. These models describe the band tail states as being localized on a single stretched bond. However to our knowledge, there is no theoretical or experimental work to justify these assumptions. In this work we use ab initio calculations to support earlier tight-binding calculations that show that the band tail states are very delocalized ---- involving large numbers of atoms as the energy is varied from miidgap into the tails. Our work also shows that the valence band tail states are statistically associated with short bonds (not long bonds) and the conduction-band states with long bonds. We have slightly modified a 512 atom model of a-Si due to Djordjevic et al. to produce a large, defect free model of a-Si:H with realistic band tails.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1.See, for example, Street, R. A., Phys. Rev. B 43, 2454 (1991); R. A. Street and K. Winer, Phys. Rev. B 40, 6236 (1989); M. J. Powell and S. C. Deane, Phys. Rev, B 10815, (1993); P. C. Taylor, in Semiconductors and Semimetals, edited by J. I. Pankove (Academic, Orlando, 1984), Vol. 21C, page 99, and references therein.Google Scholar
2.There are a vast number of models and references on this subject. For a recent summary see Fritzsche, H., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 467, 19 (1997), and references therein.Google Scholar
3. Fedders, P. A., Drabold, D. A., and Klemm, Stefan, Phys. Rev. B 45, 4048 (1992); P. A. Fedders and D. A. Drabold, Phys. Rev. B 47, 13277 (1993).Google Scholar
4. Dong, Jianjun and Drabold, D. A., Phys. Rev. Lett. 80 1928 (1998).Google Scholar
5. Djordjevic, B. R., Thorpe, M. F., and Wooten, F., Phys. Rev. B 52, 5685 (1995).Google Scholar
6. Demkov, A. A., Ortega, J., Sankey, O.F., and Grumbach, M. P., Phys. Rev. B 52, 51618 (1995).Google Scholar
7. Wooten, F. and Weaire, D., in Solid State Physics, edited by Ehrenreich, H. and Turnbull, D. (Academic, New York, 1984), Vol. 40, p2.Google Scholar
8. Fedders, P. A. and Drabold, D. A., Phys. Rev. B 47, 13277 (1993).Google Scholar