Effect of temperature on layer separation by plasma hydrogenation

Abstract

We have studied hydrogen diffusion in plasma hydrogenated Si∕SiGe∕Si heterostructure at different temperatures. At low temperature, intrinsic point defects in the molecular beam epitaxy grown Si capping layer are found to compete with the buried strain SiGe layer for hydrogen trapping. The interaction of hydrogen with point defects affects the hydrogen long-range diffusion, and restricts the amount of hydrogen available for trapping by the SiGe layer. However, hydrogen trapping by the capping layer is attenuated with increasing hydrogenation temperature allowing more hydrogen to be trapped in the strain SiGe layer with subsequent surface blister formation. A potential temperature window for plasma hydrogenation induced layer separation is identified based on the combined considerations of trap-limited diffusion at low temperature and outdiffusion of H2 molecule together with the dissociation of Si–H bonds inside of H platelet at high temperature.