%0 Journal Article
%A Rezgui, B. Drid
%A Gourbilleau, F.
%A Maestre Varea, David
%A Palais, O.
%A Sibai, A.
%A Lemiti, M.
%A Bremond, G.
%T Charge photo-carrier transport from silicon nanocrystals embedded in SiO_2-based multilayer structures
%D 2012
%@ 0021-8979
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/42745
%X Experimental investigation of photoconductivity in Si-rich silicon oxide (SRSO)/SiO_2 multilayer (ML) structures prepared by magnetron reactive sputtering is reported. Photocurrent (PC) measurements show that the PC threshold increases with decreasing the thickness of SRSO layer. Photo-conduction processes in our samples are shown to be dominated by carrier transport through quantum-confined silicon nanocrystals embedded in the SiO_2 host. In addition, the observed bias-dependence of photocurrent intensity is consistent with a model in which carrier transport occurs by both tunneling and hopping through defect states in the silicon oxide matrix. A photocurrent density J_(ph) of 1-2mA cm^(-2) is extracted from our results. Although this photocurrent density along the ML absorber film is relatively low, the results presented in this work are believed to be a valuable contribution toward the implementation of all-Si tandem solar cells.
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