Transient Photoresponse of Amorphous Silicon p-i-n Diodes

Amorphous silicon p-i-n diodes were illuminated with LED-generated trains of rectangular light pulses under various duty-cycle conditions. Our results indicate that such diodes are able to handle modulation rates in excess of 10MHz over a wide range of operating temperatures. Measurements of the dark I-V characteristics show that the shot-noise in properly designed junctions can be reduced to a level comparable to c-Si photodiodes.