Bulk acceptor compensation produced in p-type silicon at near-ambient temperatures by a H2O plasma

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Abstract
We report the neutralization of the shallow acceptors boron and gallium in p‐type silicon to a depth >1 μm after exposure to a H2O plasma for 3 h at temperatures as low as 80 °C. The fact that uncompensated n‐type silicon is unaffected by the plasma treatment means that donor formation is excluded. Exposure to either O2 or H2 plasmas does not lead to acceptor removal; however, sequential treatment in an O2 plasma followed by a H2 plasma produces the same effect as the H2O plasma while the inverse sequence has no effect. Our observations can be explained with a model considering rapidly diffusing atomic oxygen and hydrogen which recombine on acceptor sites forming neutral A−OH+ complexes. The model shows that acceptor compensation kinetics is dominated by the diffusion of atomic hydrogen.