Stability and defect reaction of two hydrogen-carbon complexes in silicon

We have found by DLTS technique an electron trap E3(0.15) and a hole trap H1(0.33), both of which are related to hydrogen and carbon, in hydrogenated n-type and p-type Si crystals. The E3 trap was annihilated above 40°C with an activation energy of about 0.7 eV and a pre-exponential factor of approx. 10⁷ s^-1, while the H1 trap was stable up to 100°C above which it disappeared with an activation energy of about 1.7 eV and a pre-exponential factor of approx. 10¹⁹ s^-1. The annihilation of the E3 trap was slowed down under a reverse bias applied to the Schottky junction. This feature and the small pre-exponential factor suggest that the E3 trap becomes unstable by capturing an electron from the conduction band. On the other hand, the large pre-exponential factor of the H1 trap suggests that its dissociation involves a large entropy change for the atomic motion of hydrogen. It is suggested that E3 and H1 traps arise from two different defects with similar origins and structures.