The influence of different transparent conducting oxides (TCO) on the transverse photoelectrical properties of one-dimensional position sensitive detectors based onp-i-namorphous silicon structures was studied. For both SnO2and indium tin oxide, poor quality of theplayer was revealed by secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements. Good agreement between experimental and simulation characteristics of TCO/p-i-nstructure was additionally conditioned by a strong increase in defect states at theplayer surface which can be attributed to the reduction/oxidation process at the TCO/pinterface. However, the analysis showed that under reverse bias the spectral response of thep-i-nstructure is not significantly affected by different TCO layers and conditions at the TCO/pheterojunction. Nevertheless, indium tin oxide is less appropriate for a front TCO layer due to the poor reverse dark current-voltage characteristic, i.e., higher leakage current component leading to lower signal to noise ratio. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.