Sensitization of the holes lifetime by the addition of dangling bonds in a-Si:H

This paper is concerned with the phenomenon of the increase of the holes lifetime with the increase of the dangling bond concentration in a-Si:H. This rather surprising phenomenon that was observed, but not discussed, previously is shown to be a non-trivial effect which is based on the charged nature of the dangling bonds and a special scenario of the concentrations of the various defect states in the material. The most important implication of our study is that the charged dangling bonds can sensitize the valence band tail states, in contrast with the accepted roles of these types of states. The present understanding suggests that many new interesting phototransport phenomena can be found in a-Si:H.