  The phototransport properties of plasma deposited highly crystalline undoped
hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon films were studied by measuring the
steady state photoconductivity (SSPC) as a function of temperature and light
intensity. The films possessing different thicknesses and microstructures had
been well characterized by various microstructural probes. Microcrystalline Si
films possessing dissimilar microstructural attributes were found to exhibit
different phototransport behaviors. We have employed numerical modeling of SSPC
to corroborate and further elucidate the experimental results. Our study
indicates that the different phototransport behaviors are linked to different
features of the proposed density of states maps of the material which are
different for microcrystalline Si films having different types of
microstructure.
