Hydrogen local vibrational modes in semiconductors

Abstract

Following, a review of experimental techniques, theory, and previous work, the results of local vibrational mode (LVM) spectroscopy on hydrogen-related complexes in several different semiconductors are discussed. Hydrogen is introduced either by annealing in a hydrogen ambient. exposure to a hydrogen plasma, or during growth. The hydrogen passivates donors and acceptors in semiconductors, forming neutral complexes. When deuterium is substituted for hydrogen. the frequency of the LVM decreases by approximately the square root of two. By varying the temperature and pressure of the samples, the microscopic structures of hydrogen-related complexes are determined. For group II acceptor-hydrogen complexes in GaAs, InP, and GaP, hydrogen binds to the host anion in a bond-centered orientation, along the [111] direction, adjacent to the acceptor. The temperature dependent shift of the LVMs are proportional to the lattice thermal energy U(T), a consequence of anharmonic coupling between the LVM and acoustical phonons. In the wide band gap semiconductor ZnSe, epilayers grown by metalorganic chemical vapor phase epitaxy (MOCVD) and doped with As form As-H complexes. The hydrogen assumes a bond-centered orientation, adjacent to a host Zn. In AlSb, the DX centers Se and Te are passivated by hydrogen. The second, third, and fourth harmonics of themore » wag modes are observed. Although the Se-D complex has only one stretch mode, the Se-H stretch mode splits into three peaks. The anomalous splitting is explained by a new interaction between the stretch LVM and multi-phonon modes of the lattice. As the temperature or pressure is varied, and anti-crossing is observed between LVM and phonon modes.« less