Dehydrogenation studies of amorphous silicon

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The dehydrogenation of highly photoconductive amorphous silicon films has been studied using 15N,p nuclear reaction hydrogen depth profiling and isochronal anneals at temperatures between 300 and 500 °C. The studies shown that neither diffusion nor a first-order reaction are the rate limiting dehydrogenation mechanism for hydrogen concentrations between 5 and 40 at. %. Dehydrogenation is not rate limited by processes at the surface. The studies suggest that for concentrations above 5 at. % the dehydrogenation may be explained by second-order reaction kinetics involving the reordering of bonds. Below about 5 at. % a first-order process leading to dangling silicon bonds appears to dominate.