Temperature dependence of the photoconductive absorption edge in amorphous silicon

A novel differential technique is used to measure the temperature dependence of the slope of the exponential part of the photoconductive absorption edge in amorphous silicon. No anomalous energy dependence for the carrier generation efficiency is observed in the temperature range from 140 to 300 K. The magnitude of the structural disorder inferred from the temperature dependence of the width of the absorption edge is consistent with published structural studies.