Very fast light-induced degradation of a-Si:H/c-Si(100) interfaces

Light-induced degradation (LID) of crystalline silicon (c-Si) surfaces passivated with hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is investigated. The initial passivation decays on polished c-Si(100) surfaces on a time scale much faster than usually associated with bulk a-Si:H LID. This phenomenon is absent for the a-Si:H/c-Si(111) interface. We attribute these differences to the allowed reconstructions on the respective surfaces. This may point to a link between the presence of so-called fast states and (internal) surface reconstruction in bulk a-Si:H.