Migration energies of point defects during electron irradiation of hydrogenated Si crystals

Abstract

To study both generation rates and mobilities of point defects due to electron irradiation, we measured and analyzed optical-absorption spectra of complexes of hydrogen and point defects generated by low-temperature electron irradiation of hydrogenated Si crystals. Specimens were doped with H by heating in ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ gas at 1300 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C followed by quenching. They were then irradiated with 6-MeV electrons at 270, 200, 130, and 77 K. We measured their optical-absorption spectra at 7 K with an Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. We observed many optical absorption peaks which are due to localized vibrational modes of H bound to various point defects. The irradiation temperature dependence of concentrations of some H-point defect complexes was not monotonic contrary to the prediction of metastable Frenkel pair models. Relative intensities of those peaks depended on the irradiation temperature and were interpreted to be due to the relative mobilities of various point defects. The migration energies of a self-interstitial and a Frenkel pair relative to that of a vacancy were determined.