Direct and highly sensitive measurement of defect-related absorption in amorphous silicon thin films by cavity ringdown spectroscopy

Cavity ringdown spectroscopy has been applied to hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) showing that this fully optical method is suited for the detection of defect-related absorption in thin films with a minimal detectable absorption of 1x10(-6) per laser pulse and without the need for a calibration procedure. Absolute absorption coefficient spectra for photon energies between 0.7 and 1.7 eV have been obtained for thin a-Si:H films (4-98 nm) revealing a different spectral dependence for defects located in the bulk and in the surface/interface region of a-Si:H. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.