Chemical kinetics of the hydrogen-GePb1 defect interaction at the (100)GexSi1−x/SiO2 interface

Abstract

A study of the hydrogen passivation/dissociation kinetics of the GePb1 (Ge dangling bond) defect at the (100) GexSi1−x/SiO2 interface shows that the data can be well described by the same generalized simple thermal model as applied to the Si Pb dangling bond defect at the Si/SiO2 interface, enabling inference of the relevant kinetic parameters. It is found that even for optimized treatment, only ∼60% of the GePb1 system can be electrically inactivated through binding to H, which is well below device grade level. This is concluded to be a direct consequence of the existence of excessive spreads in activation energies for GePb1 passivation/reactivation dissociation.