Hydrogen passivation of the oxygen-related thermal-donor defect in silicon

Abstract

It is demonstrated with both spreading resistance measurements and deep level transient spectroscopy that hydrogenation neutralizes the oxygen-related thermal-donor defect in n-type silicon. Hydrogen neutralization of shallow-donor dopants (e.g., phosphorus) is also illustrated. A model which accounts for shallow-donor passivation is applied to explain the interaction between hydrogen and thermal donors.