| Abstrakt: |
Previous work [Vanheusden and Devine, Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 3109 (2000)] has reported that subjecting Si/SiO[sub 2]/Si capacitors to a 450 °C preanneal in hydrogen impedes formation of protons in the buried oxide during the subsequent generation anneal at 600 °C in H[sub 2]. In interpreting, a key role in proton generation was assigned to Si dangling bond (P[sub b]-) type defects, yet with unusual assumptions as to their atomic hydrogen production nature. Here, an explanation of the preanneal effect is offered based on annealing induced structural relaxation of (P[sub b]-type) interface defects residing in edge regions of the capacitor, affecting their atomic hydrogen generation efficiency through altering the spreads in the defect activation energies for passivation in H[sub 2] and dissociation. Thus the preannealing effect is seen as a direct result of the occurrence of substantial spreads in regions of enhanced strain. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
