Investigation of a Si and related semiconductors as materials for photovoltaic conversion

Research on amorphous silicon for photovoltaic uses is described. Section 1 describes a new glow discharge apparatus constructed at Harvard and initial efforts to use it to fabricate films of a-Si:H. Section 2 describes a new analysis of space-charge-limited current measurements to obtain density of gap states results. Section 2 contains a description of preliminary film properties of a-Si:H, doped a-Si:H, and a-SiGe:H films produced in the new glow discharge system. Section 4 presents more complete data on the films and describes improvements made to the discharge apparatus.