Thermal evolution of hydrogen related defects in hydrogen implanted Czochralski silicon investigated by Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy

Abstract

Micro-Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy investigations have been applied on hydrogen implanted p-type Czochralski silicon samples to investigate the hydrogen related defects and their evolution after subsequent annealing. The thermal evolution of interstitial-hydrogen and vacancy-hydrogen complexes and hydrogen terminated silicon dangling bonds has been analyzed. Furthermore, the two Raman lines of molecular hydrogen attributed to free hydrogen molecules in blisters and molecular hydrogen trapped in multivacancies have been observed and analyzed. A mechanism based on the exchange of the hydrogen atoms between different hydrogen related defects during the annealing is proposed for the blister formation process, which is relevant for the hydrogen induced exfoliation for silicon-on-insulator fabrication.