Hydrogen-oxygen interaction in silicon at around 50°C

Formation kinetics of oxygen-hydrogen (O-H) complexes which give rise to an infrared absorption line at 1075.1 cm(-1) have been studied in Czochralski-grown silicon crystals in the temperature range of 30-150 degrees C. Hydrogen was incorporated into the crystals by high temperature (1200 degrees C) in diffusion from H-2 gas. It was found that the observed kinetics can be explained as being due to an interaction of mobile neutral hydrogen-related species with bond-centered oxygen atoms. The binding energy of the O-H complex was determined to be 0.28+/-0.02 eV. An activation energy for migration of hydrogen-related species responsible for the formation of the O-H complexes was found to be 0.78+/-0.05 eV. It was shown that atomic hydrogen and H-2*, a complex containing two hydrogen atoms, one at bond-centered site and another one at antibonding site, cannot account for the hydrogen-oxygen interaction considered. Hydrogen molecules (H-2) located at tetrahedral interstitial site are suggested to be the species which interact with interstitial oxygen atoms and form the complex giving rise to the absorption line at 1075.1 cm(-1). (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.