Effusion of deuterium from deuterated-fluorinated amorphous silicon under illumination

Temperature-dependent deuterium effusion experiments were performed on deuterated-fluorinated amorphous silicon containing 25% D and 0.5% F. Evolution was made in the dark and under up to AM1 illumination. It was found that illumination enhanced effusion. The effect could be explained by an increased D diffusion, caused by enhanced SiD bond breaking resulting from energy supplied by the decay of photocarriers to midgap states.