Simulation of hydrogen diffusion and boron passivation in crystalline silicon

TL;DR

This paper models hydrogen diffusion and boron passivation in crystalline silicon, successfully simulating experimental profiles and revealing the importance of spatially varying parameters and defect distributions during plasma treatment.

Contribution

It extends previous hydrogen migration models to simulate plasma deuteration in boron-doped silicon, incorporating spatially dependent absorption parameters for better accuracy.

Findings

Simulated deuterium profiles match experimental data.

Parameter values decrease with depth to fit profile abruptness.

Spatial defect distributions influence hydrogen absorption.

Abstract

The model of hydrogen migration and of the reactions of hydrogen atoms with electrically active impurity, developed earlier, has been applied to simulate hydrogen diffusion and passivation process during plasma deuteration of silicon substrates doped with boron. The calculated deuterium concentration profiles agree well in the length of the passivated region with the experimental data obtained on treatment in hydrogen plasma at a temperature of 200 Celsius degrees for 5, 10, and 15 minutes. On the other hand, to achieve a good fit to the abruptness of the calculated profiles between the passivated and unpassivated regions, it is necessary to suppose that the values of the parameters that describe the absorption of hydrogen interstitials by electrically active dopant atoms decrease with increase in the depth of the passivated region. For example, nonuniform spatial distributions of nonequilibrium point defects generated during plasma treatment can lead to a spatial dependence of hydrogen absorption.