1/f noise in amorphous silicon and silicon-germanium alloys

Abstract

We report measurements of conductance noise of a-Si1-XGeX:H in two different geometries; one where the current flow is transverse to the surface and the other longitudinal to it. Because of the large increase in sample resistance in going from transverse to longitudinal conduction, it was not possible to measure both geometries at the same temperature. However, the temperature trends are compatible with a common noise source. For both geometries, alloying with up to 40% Ge reduces the noise magnitude by a factor of 50 over that found in a-Si:H