THIN-FILM SWITCHING DEVICES USING AMORPHOUS-SILICON SILICON CARBON MULTILAYERS

A photodiode with a gain greater than 10 and a switching device are developed using the wide band gap (2.4 eV) of hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbon (a-SiC:H) films deposited from highly hydrogen diluted C2H4 and SiH4. Both devices assure promissing for the application of imaging and display devices. The photodiode is consisted of n+-I-i-p+ layers of amorphous silicon based materials. The I layer is a thin (30-60 nm) layer of a-SiC:H. The structure of the switching device is n+-I-i-I-p+ constructed by stacking layers of a-Si:H and a-SiC:H. This device shows a thyristor-like switching characteristics with a turn-on voltage of 3 V and a sustaining current of few microamperes.