The effects of irradiation and proton implantation on the density of mobile protons in SiO2 thin films

The radiation response of mobile protons introduced into thermal oxides cap ped with poly-Si is investigated. Total dose irradiation data show that the cross section for capture of radiation-induced electrons by mobile protons is two orders of magnitude smaller than for electron capture by trapped ho les. A consistent model is proposed to explain the weak temperature depende nce of the capture process observed in this study as opposed to the strong increase in proton neutralization with increasing temperature observed in a n earlier UV exposure study. In contrast with the behavior of SOI material, no post-irradiation trapping of mobile protons could be observed in the th ermal SiO2 layer of the Si/SiO2/Si structures studied in this work. In the second part of this work it is shown that, unlike the effect of annealing i n a hydrogen containing ambient, proton implantation does not yield a signi ficant number of mobile protons in the buried oxide of Si/SiO2/Si structure s.