Photoconductivity in Thin Film of a-(Ge20Se80)0.90Sn0.10

Steady state and transient photoconductivity measurements have been done on thin film of a-(Ge20Se80)0.90Sn0.10 as a function of temperature and intensity. Dark conductivity (σd) and photoconductivity (σph) measurements show that the conduction in this glass is through an activated process having single activation energy in the temperature range 283–350 K. The intensity dependence of steady state photoconductivity (σph) follows a power law with intensity (F), σph ∝ F γ , where the power γ has been found between 0.5 and 1.0, suggesting bimolecular recombination. Rise and decay of photocurrent at different temperatures and intensities show that photocurrent (Iph) rises monotonically to the steady state value and the decay of photocurrent is quite slow. A detailed analysis of photoconductive decay shows that the recombination within localized states may be predominant recombination mechanism in this glassy alloy. C 2006 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.