Introduction of hydrogen into bulk silicon during plasma treatments using a stop layer formed by ion implantation

To estimate the small concentration of H that is introduced by the hydrogenation of Si based structures a method, which uses formation of a stop-layer by ion implantation of different ions (Si+, Ge+ , He+) followed by an annealing, is proposed The method is based on a recently observed phenomenon that during the ion implantation with an appropriate energy and dose two buried defect zones are formed: (i) at the projected range of the silicon ions (Rp) and in a region at about Rp/2. In this study it is demonstrated that these zones act as trapping ones to getter hydrogen/deuterium, which is in-diffused from plasma treated surface into ion implanted and then annealed Si. Cz Si samples were implanted with Si+, Ge+ or He+ ions followed by a post-implantation annealing. The hydrogen/deuterium plasma treatments of the samples were performed at 300 ºC. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was used for analysis of the hydrogen distribution. It is demonstrated that accumulation of the diffused hydrogen occurs at both Rp and Rp/2. It is found that the trapped at buried defect layers hydrogen/deuterium can indicate the efficiency of a hydrogenation process. It is shown that concentration of H/D atoms introduced into the Si bulk from plasma is much higher than that from hydrogen containing SiNx layers.