Recovery of plasma-induced defects in SiO₂/Si stack: defect activation and hydrogen’s effects

Ar, O 2 , and H 2 plasma-induced defects at the SiO 2 /Si interface are studied in terms of the recovery of defects in annealing experiment. The defects are characterized by the carrier lifetime of Si, which is obtained as a function of the annealing temperature, T . With this characterization, the activation energy of defects is determined. The activation energy is larger for the O 2 and Ar plasma-induced defects, whereas it is smaller for the H 2 plasma-induced defects. The H 2 plasma-induced defects are recovered efficiently at low- T annealing. However, the recovered structure is not robust; the defects are regenerated at high- T annealing.