Defects in Amorphous Silicon: Dynamics and Role on Crystallization Thesis by Jung H. Shin In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 1994 (Submitted November, 1993)Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my family for their loving support and encouragement. I am here because of them. My growth as a scientist here at Caltech would have been impossible without the help and support of Prof. Harry A. Atwater, and I would like to express my deepest gratitude to him. Not only did he provide invaluable guidance, he also showed Ze: like patience and faith during the carly part of my research, when nothing seemed to be going right. I am still amazed that I was not thrown out. Thanks. also would like to thank Prof. Mare A. Nicolet for allowing me to use his implanter and other equipment in his lab. They have been invaluable in my research. Many thanks also go to Prof. James $. Im, who not only helped me, fresh out of college, get started on research, but also provided me with countless midnight meals. Thanks. I would like to express special thanks to: Jimmy Yang, who helped me with all matters concerning computers (I still am not sure what CON- FIG.SYS does); Peter Stolk, who provided me with his measurements of den sity of electronic states of amorphous silicon; to Jason Reid, who depositeddiffusion barrier and silver contacts for some of the samples; to Kyong-Hee Kim, for performing X-ray analysis of some of the samples; to Edward Ryan and Loren Funk of High Voltage Electron Microscope/Tandem Accelerator at Argonne National Laboratory for their expert assistance; Imran Hashim and Ramana Murty, for their help with transmission electron microscopy; Maggie Taylor and Ruth Brain, for proofreading this thesis; and to Carol Garland, for her help with transmission electron microscopy, and also for steering me toward the research area of structural relaxation. I would also like to express my deep thanks to people who have pro- vided me with friendship and good times while here at Caltech: Dr. Shouleh Nikzad, Dr. Byungwoo Park, Dr. Cho Jen Tsai, Dr. Channing Ahn, Selmer Wong, Heather Frase, Gang He, and Kirill Shcheglov. Thanks.