Defect evolution during ion bombardment of amorphous Si probed by in situ conductivity measurements

In this work we use in-situ conductivity measurements during ion irradiation as a sensitive probe of the defect structure of amorphous Si. Electronic transport in amorphous Si occurs by hopping at the high density (∼ 1020 cm-3 eV-1) of deep lying localized states introduced by the defects in the band gap. In-situ conductivity measurements allow to follow directly the defect generation and annihilation kinetics during and after ion bombardment of the material. Amorphous Si layers, patterned to perform conductivity measurements, were annealed at 500 C in order to reduce the defect density by about a factor of 5. Defects were subsequently reintroduced by high energy ion irradiation at different temperatures (77-300 K). During irradiation the conductivity of the layer increases by several orders of magnitude and eventually saturates. Turning off the beam results in a decrease of the conductivity by a factor of 2 in times as long as a few hours even at 77 K. The effects of different ions (He, C, Si, Cu, and Au) and different ion fluxes (109-1012 ions/cm2 s) on these phenomena have been explored. These data give a hint on the mechanisms of defect production and annihilation and demonstrate a strong correlation between electrical and structural defects in amorphous (orig.)