Hot Electrons in Amorphous Silicon

At extremely high electric fields (<i>F</i>≤0.55 MV/cm) and high temperatures (300<<i>T</i><450 K), full deactivation of the electron drift mobility in amorphous hydrogenated silicon (<i>a</i>-Si:H) is obtained and therefore the shallow trapping is substantially reduced. New data clearly demonstrate that the free electron (band) mobility in <i>a</i>-Si:H decreases when the electric field increases, contrary to other disordered materials (e.g., amorphous selenium). In this sense the free carrier transport in <i>a</i>-Si:H is similar to the hot carriers in crystals when phonon scattering prevails.