Positron beam study of annealed silicon nitride films

Positron annihilation spectroscopy has been used to study silicon nitride films grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and annealed at different temperatures. For both silicon-rich and nitrogen-rich films, the positron line shape (S) parameter increases after annealing for 15 min at temperatures up to 700\u2013800\u2009\ub0C. This is understood in terms of the fact that removal of the hydrogen by annealing leads to the presence of unpassivated silicon dangling bond sites and vacancy complexes. Annealing at higher temperatures leads to a reduction in the S parameter, consistent with further hydrogen removal producing unpassivated N 12 sitesPeer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye