Silicon, including amorphous and crystalline, is a leading material for photo-conversion devices.
Crystalline silicon is more expensive, than hydrogenated amorphous silicon.
However, amorphous silicon degrades in sunlight. The Staebler-Wronski effect is the formation of metastable defects under light exposure. When amorphous silicon is exposed to light, this material experiences changes, which is correlated to a local microstructure formation of broken silicon bonds, which increases the dangling bonds density. After this material is exposed to light, the large quantity of defects in this material diminishes the lifetime of carriers, which in turn decreases its photo-conversion capabilities. Thus, understanding amorphous silicon at the molecular and atomic levels is essential to developing methods to reduce the Staebler-Wronski effect, improving this photoconversion material.