Defect states in amorphous SiNx:H compounds using thermally stimulated exo-electron emission

Sung Heo, Hyoungsun Park, Jae Gwan chung, Hyung Ik Lee, Jucheol Park, Yong Koo Kyoung, Yong Su Kim, Ki Hong Kim, Sun Jung Byun, Woo Sung Jeon, Gyeong Su Park, Pyungho Choi, Byoung Deog Choi, Dongwha Lee, Hoon Young Cho, Hee Jae Kang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Defect states of hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiNx:H) thin films were measured using the thermally stimulated exoelectron emission spectroscopic method. The defect states of films with nitrogen to silicon composition ratios (x) of 0.92, 1.21, and 1.44 were found to be located 1.66, 1.77, and 1.82 eV below the conduction band minimum, respectively. We confirmed that the hydrogen concentration decreased as x was increased via an elastic recoil detection analysis experiment, while as the hydrogen concentration increased, the defect concentration decreased. From these results, we concluded that the defect centers could be related to dangling bonds, the so-called K centers, in silicon nitride. Furthermore, as the concentration of Si[sbnd]H was increased with decreasing x via the infrared spectroscopy, the defect density was reduced through the defect passivation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)850-855
Number of pages6
JournalThin Solid Films
Volume616
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2016

Keywords

  • a-SiNx:H
  • Band alignment
  • REELS
  • TSEE
  • XPS

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