Ana‐Si:H sample was soaked by AM1 light at 300 K (stateB1) and 100 K (stateB2), respectively. An annealing activation energy of 1.2 eV was found for the metastable subband‐gap absorption. However, for the recovery of the mobility‐lifetime product, &mgr;&tgr;, an activation energy of 0.9 eV was found for both statesB1 andB2. The capture cross section of the recombination centers was estimated. It is suggested that the degradation in the &mgr;&tgr; product is due to the creation of new recombination centers near the dark Fermi level with at least an eight times larger capture cross section than that of neutral dangling bonds.