THE EFFECT OF POST-HYDROGENATION ON THE EQUILIBRIUM AND METASTABLE PROPERTIES OF HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon films were exposed to monatomic deuteri um at 350 degrees C up to 8 hours. The defect densities in the anneale d state, after illumination and after deuteration were determined usin g CPM measurements following each exposure sequence. We find that an i ncrease of the concentration of Si-H bonds by as much as 3 X 10(21)cm( -3) changes neither the defect density, the weak Si-Si bond density no r the defect metastability. This suggests that the weak Si-Si bond den sity as well as the dangling bond density is determined by equilibrati on with strong Si-Si bonds through the interchange of H. The implicati ons of these results for H bonding are discussed.