Defect termination on crystalline silicon surfaces by hydrogen for improvement in the passivation quality of catalytic chemical vapor-deposited SiNx and SiNx/P catalytic-doped layers

Abstract

We investigate the role of hydrogen (H) in the improvement in the passivation quality of silicon nitride (SiNx) prepared by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (Cat-CVD) and Cat-CVD SiNx/phosphorus (P) Cat-doped layers on crystalline silicon (c-Si) by annealing. Both structures show promising passivation capabilities for c-Si with extremely low surface recombination velocity (SRV) on n-type c-Si. Defect termination by H is evaluated on the basis of defect density (Nd) determined by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy and interface state density (Dit) calculated by the Terman method. The two parameters are found to be drastically decreased by annealing after SiNx deposition. The calculated average Dit at midgap (Dit-average) is 2.2 × 1011 eV−1 cm−2 for the SiNx/P Cat-doped c-Si sample with a SRV of 2 cm/s, which is equivalent to 3.1 × 1011 eV−1 cm−2 for the SiNx/c-Si sample with a SRV of 5 cm/s after annealing. The results indicate that H atoms play a critical role in the reduction in Dit for SiNx/c-Si and SiNx/P Cat-doped c-Si, resulting in a drastic reduction in SRV by annealing.