Nano-scale order in hydrogenated amorphous silicon a-Si,H and doped a-Si(H) Defect reduction for device applications

Up until recently (i) c-Si and poly-crystalline Si (poly-Si have been assumed to be qualitatively different than (ii) a-Si(H). X-ray absorption and photo-emission studies combined with ab-initio many-electron theory for their interpretation have established that they are indeed much similar. In point of fact, a-Si(H) should be renamed nano-grain (ng)-Si, since some of the more important properties, e.g., doping and forming p-n junctions are a consequence of the nano-grain character.