Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
A photomixing technique was employed to determine the lifetime and the mobility in intrinsic a-Si:H, by measuring the power of the beat frequency in conjunction with the dc. photocurrent. Both the mobility and lifetime were found to decrease continuously following the light-soaking process, which indicates the existence of long-range potential fluctuations and a change in the recombination processes due to light-soaking. For the first time, evidence is provided that degradation is accompanied by loss of mobility, a fact that is neglected in all prevailing models for the Staebler-Wronski effect. Intrinsic a-Si:H samples produced by glow-discharge deposition and the hot wire technique were employed in this work.