Hydrogen in Semiconductors

SEMICONDUCTORS AND SEMIMETALS VOLUME 34 Treatise Editors R.K. Wiiiardsoe and Albert G. Beer 

XEROX PALO ALTO RESEARCH CENTER PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA 

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Also during the 1970s, research on the role of H in amorphous semiconductors intensified rapidly. Paul and coworkers (Lewis et al., 1974 Paul et al., 1976) were the first to recognize that H had a role in improving the properties of amorphous semiconductors. But what triggered the 

Copyright 1991 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 

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In this chapter we will list the deep-level centers passivated by atomic hydrogen in the major elemental semiconductor, namely Si, and discuss their thermal stability and the possible passivation mechanisms. As is the case with any aspect of hydrogen in semiconductors, much more work has been performed in Si than any of the other materials. 

In this chapter we survey the application of ion beam techniques to the study of hydrogen in semiconductors. We describe the techniques... 

The ion-beam analysis techniques described in preceding sections have been applied in many investigations of hydrogen in semiconductors. In this section we will mention studies in two areas where ion-beam analysis of H has made a significant contribution these are the thermal release and redistribution of implanted hydrogen and the absolute measurement of IR absorption cross sections in a-Si H. In addition, we will mention a developing field, the study of hydrogen in interfaces. 

The most important consequence of the correspondence between muonium and hydrogen in Si is that it confirms that the muonium studies yield direct microscopic information on isolated hydrogen in semiconductors. Furthermore, it suggests that many of the novel muonium centers observed in other semiconductors (see Section IV) will also have hy-drogenic analogs. 

I would like to thank S.T. Pantelides for introducing me to the problem of hydrogen in semiconductors and for a productive collaboration. Thanks are also due to P.J.H. Denteneer for stimulating interactions, to R.F.Kiefl and T.L. Estle for valuable help and suggestions, and to S. Colak, C.S. Nichols, and D.J. Olego for critical reading of the manuscript. 

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