Hydrogen and doping issues in wide band gap semiconductors

Hydrogen may be non-intentionally incorporated in wide band gap semiconductors when they are grown or processed under hydrogen-rich ambients. A possible consequence is a passivation of the dopants. The diffusion of hydrogen in boron doped diamond is presented to illustrate how hydrogen diffusion studies can evidence the existence of H-dopant interactions. Then, the hydrogen-dopant complexes will be investigated in wide band gap II-VT semiconductors and in GaN by infrared vibrational spectroscopy. Complex dissociation and dopant reactivation will finally be discussed together with hydrogen out-diffusion results, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.