Reversible vs irreversible photodarkening in a-Se: the kinetics study

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 20; no. Suppl 1; pp. 111 - 115
• Main Authors: Reznik, A., Baranovskii, S. D., Klebanov, M., Lyubin, V., Rubel, O., Rowlands, J. A.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 2009; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Barriers; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Conversion; Electronics; Equations of state, phase equilibria, and phase transitions; Exact sciences and technology; Excitation; Materials Science; Mathematical models; Optical and Electronic Materials; Photodarkening; Physics; Selenium; Solid-solid transitions; Specific phase transitions; Studies; Metastable State; Reversible Component; Probe Beam; Structural Unit; Pump Beam; Irreversible processes; Phenomenological model; Relaxation; Reversible processes; Phase transformations; Photodarkening; Photoinduced effect; Kinetics; Amorphous state; Selenium; Darkening; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-007-9461-8

The kinetics of photodarkening (PD) in amorphous selenium has been studied experimentally at different intensities of optical excitation. Comparison between the experimental results and a proposed phenomenological model reveals the characteristic rates for conversion of structural units into reversible and irreversible states. Our results show that the relaxation of the irreversible PD states occurs over a barrier of about 0.9 eV and is described by much longer characteristic times (more that one order of magnitude) than that for the reversible states.