Influence of temperature–pressure treatment on heavily hydrogenated silicon surface

Abstract

Microstructure and related properties of hydrogenated silicon samples, Si:H, treated at high-temperature (HT) up to 1270 K under hydrostatic argon pressure (HP) up to 1.1 GPa are investigated. To prepare Si:H, Czochralski grown 0 0 1 oriented single crystalline Si wafer with 50 nm thick surface SiO 2 layer was heavily implanted with hydrogen using the immersion plasma source of hydrogen ions with energy 24 keV. The surface of HT–HP treated Si:H was characterised by scanning electron microscopy. Reflectivity pattern measurements in the wavelength range of 350–2000 nm have been performed to analyse their surface and bulk properties. The volume averaging method for a model of layer-like structure has been used to simulate the HT–HP treated Si:H. The analysis of Si:H samples suggests the multi-layer structure composed of Si, Si:H, SiO, SiO 2, and of porous Si layers in the sub-surface region. The porous Si:H samples model is in good consistency with experimental data from reflectance measurements.