Electrical Transport Studies of the Hydrogen-Related Compensating Donor in B-Doped Silicon Diodes

Abstract
Transport of the hydrogen-related, acceptor-compensating defect has been observed in reverse-bias annealed Al-gate Schottky and n+-P diodes from hydrogenated, B-doped p-Si. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) profiling (deuterium substitution) confirmed field-aided migration. Significant differences in field transport (and thermal diffusion) between diodes from Hand D-treated p-Si(B) qualitatively indicates a monatomic species. The effect is interpreted as field drift of a positively charged species, possibly H+, with a donor charge state in the upper-half band gap, in conflict with long-held theory predicting very deep level activity. Acceptor compensation is unstable under minority (electron) carrier injection by forward bias or illumination at 25°C, supporting the acceptor-protonic trap pair model (A-H+) of Sah, Pan and Hsu [J. Appl. Phys. 57, 5148 (1985)].