Divacancy annealing in Si: Influence of hydrogen

We have performed comparative studies of divacancy (V-2) annealing in hydrogenated and nonhydrogenated Si by deep level transient spectroscopy. It is shown that the nonhydrogenated samples demonstrate the formation of divacancy-oxygen (V2O) complex during annealing of V-2, while the hydrogenated samples demonstrate annealing of V-2 without correlated growth of electrically active centers. No substantial formation of divacancy-hydrogen (V2H) complexes is observed in the hydrogenated samples. It is suggested that the dominant mechanism of V-2 annealing in hydrogen-rich Si is the interaction with hydrogen molecules (H-2) that results in the formation of the V2H2 complex.