A defect band is formed in hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiNx:H) due to current stressing of the material. This gives rise to an increase in conductivity, referred to as current induced conductivity. This thesis investigates the current transport mechanisms that occur in the induced defect band, by comparing the temperature dependence of the conductivity of several sets of a-SiNx:H thin film diodes. These sets were systematically current stressed to different levels with one set remaining unstressed. Samples with energy gaps of 2.06 eV and 2.28 eV were considered. We show that around room temperature a modified Poole-Frenkel description of conduction (i.e. field enhanced hopping of carriers via charged defect states) provides a good fit to the data. Using this model the activation energy of current transport was calculated and shown to depend on the material band gap. Data fitting to the Poole-Frenkel model provided further support for the field-assisted hopping mechanism. Previous investigations had suggested that the defect band resides in the lower half of the band gap, so that current transport through the defect band was then expected to be due to the movement of holes, in a manner consistent with Poole-Frenkel conduction. By considering samples grown on p-type and n-type substrates, we demonstrated that transport was indeed the result of the movement of holes through the defect states within the induced defect band. At lower temperatures the experimental data is poorly described by a modified Poole-Frenkel type process, so further mechanisms were considered, including variable-range hopping and nearest-neighbour hopping. Due to the similar nature and slight temperature dependence of each process, differentiating between the two mechanisms proved difficult. However, other factors such as the temperature range and defect density favoured variable-range hopping transport. By assuming this form of low temperature hopping transport, conduction through the defect-band of the a-SiNx:H, could then be convincingly explained over the entire temperature range from 320 K to 20 K in terms of two dominant transport mechanisms, Poole-Frenkel conduction and variable-range hopping.

<p>The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology has been under research since thelate 1950s, and most of the research has been on designs utilizing yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as the electrolyte of choice. However, the SOFC technology has the major drawback of requiring high operation temperatures (up to 1000 degrees Celcius), so research of alternative materials have come into interest that would possibly require a lower working temperature without any significant loss of conductivity.One such material of interest for the electrolyte is compounds of ceriumdioxide (ceria). Ceria is well known for its ability to release oxygen by formingoxygen vacancies under oxygen-poor conditions, which increases its oxygen ionconductivity, and works at a lower temperature than the YSZ compounds whenproperly doped. Conversely, ceria is also able to absorb oxygen under oxygen-rich conditions, and those two abilities make it a very good material to use in catalytic converters for reduction of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emission. The ability for the oxygen ions to easily relocate inbetween the different lattice sites is likely the key property of oxygen ion transportation in ceria. Also, in oxygen-rich conditions, the absorbed oxygen atom is assumed to join the structure at either the roomy octrahedral sites, or the vacant tetrahedral sites. Following that, the oxygen atom may relocate to other vacant locations, given it can overcome a possible potential barrier.</p><p>This thesis studies how those interstitial oxygen vacancies (defects) affect theenergy profile of ceria-based supercells by first principles calculations. The system is modeled within the density functional theory (DFT) with aid of (extended) local density approximation (LDA+U) using the software VASP. Furthermore, it is studied how those vacancies affect neighbouring oxygen atoms, and wether or not it is energetically benificial for the neighbouring atoms to readjust their positions closer or further away from the vacancy. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze wether or not it is theoretically possible that interstitial oxygen vacancies may cause neighbouring oxygen atoms to naturally relocate to the octahedral site in ceria, and how this affects the overall energy profile of the material.</p>

The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology has been under research since thelate 1950s, and most of the research has been on designs utilizing yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) as the electrolyte of choice. However, the SOFC technology has the major drawback of requiring high operation temperatures (up to 1000 degrees Celcius), so research of alternative materials have come into interest that would possibly require a lower working temperature without any significant loss of conductivity.One such material of interest for the electrolyte is compounds of ceriumdioxide (ceria). Ceria is well known for its ability to release oxygen by formingoxygen vacancies under oxygen-poor conditions, which increases its oxygen ionconductivity, and works at a lower temperature than the YSZ compounds whenproperly doped. Conversely, ceria is also able to absorb oxygen under oxygen-rich conditions, and those two abilities make it a very good material to use in catalytic converters for reduction of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emission. The ability for the oxygen ions to easily relocate inbetween the different lattice sites is likely the key property of oxygen ion transportation in ceria. Also, in oxygen-rich conditions, the absorbed oxygen atom is assumed to join the structure at either the roomy octrahedral sites, or the vacant tetrahedral sites. Following that, the oxygen atom may relocate to other vacant locations, given it can overcome a possible potential barrier. This thesis studies how those interstitial oxygen vacancies (defects) affect theenergy profile of ceria-based supercells by first principles calculations. The system is modeled within the density functional theory (DFT) with aid of (extended) local density approximation (LDA+U) using the software VASP. Furthermore, it is studied how those vacancies affect neighbouring oxygen atoms, and wether or not it is energetically benificial for the neighbouring atoms to readjust their positions closer or further away from the vacancy. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze wether or not it is theoretically possible that interstitial oxygen vacancies may cause neighbouring oxygen atoms to naturally relocate to the octahedral site in ceria, and how this affects the overall energy profile of the material.