Analytical study of high absorption region of the absorption edge of a-Si:H using nonlinear regression method

Abstract

This research is concerned with the re-analysis of optical data (the imaginary part of the dielectric function ε_2 as a function of photon energy E) of a-Si:H films prepared by Jackson et al. and Ferlauto et al. through using nonlinear regression fitting we estimated the optical energy gap E_opt and the deviation from the Tauc model by considering the parameter of energy photon-dependence of the momentum matrix element of the p as a free parameter by assuming that density of states distribution to be a square root function. It is observed for films prepared by Jackson et al. that the value of the parameter p for the photon energy range (~ 2.7-2) eV is 0.787 is close to the value p= 1 assumed by the Cody model and the optical gap energy is 1.72 eV which is also close to the value of the Cody gap of these films. While for the films prepared by Ferlauto et al. the value of the parameter p is equal to 0.57 and the optical gap energy is 1.72 eV.