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).