Ultraviolet radiation induced defect creation in buried SiO2 layers

Abstract

The creation of oxygen-vacancy defects in amorphous SiO2 films produced by O+ implantation and annealing has been studied using radiation from a microwave excited Kr plasma. Photons having λ≤125 nm are found to create saturation densities ∼1.3×1019 cm−3 whereas for λ≥ (R18)200 nm the saturation density is ∼3.4×1017 cm−3. It is argued that simultaneous defect creation and annihilation may occur for long wavelength, sub-band-gap energy photons. Strongly enhanced defect creation (≤970 times) is observed as compared to bulk, amorphous SiO2 in the form of Suprasil 1 plate. It is suggested that this may be due to H sensitization of the defect precursors (O3≡Si—Si≡O3).