PITFALLS IN THE MEASUREMENT OF METAL P-SI CONTACTS - THE EFFECT OF HYDROGEN PASSIVATION/

Chemical etching of Si, used in the preparation of clean, hydrogen-ter minated Si surfaces, was found to inject hydrogen-leading to the passi vation of acceptors at depths over 0.5 mum. This effect explains the ' 'high'' barrier heights, the nonlinear capacitance-voltage plots, and the nonuniform dopant profiles observed for metals deposited on unanne aled, etched p-type substrates. Room-temperature metal deposition on a tomically clean, well-annealed p-type substrates showed no changes in the active dopant profile, in disagreement with metal-acceptor complex mechanisms recently proposed.