Photodetector structures based on amorphous hydrogenated silicon with nanocrystalline inclusions

Photodetector structures of resistor and diode types have been obtained that possess high sensitivity to visible and near-UV radiation. The photosensitivity sigma (ph)/sigma (d) of the photoresistors in the visible region (AMI) reached 10(7), while the absolute spectral sensitivity of the Schottky-barrier photodiodes was 0.6 A/W at a wavelength of 480 nm and 0.11 A/W at a wavelength of 300 nm. The high photosensitivity of the resulting photodetector structures is apparently associated with structural features of the films, namely with the presence of nanocrystalline inclusions that appear when a-Si:H layers 10-25 nm thick are annealed in a hydrogen plasma. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.