Interactions of intentionally diffused hydrogen with nitrogen acceptors and nitrogen related donor centers in molecular beam epitaxy grown ZnSe

Nitrogen doped ZnSe layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy have been expose d to a hydrogen or deuterium plasma. Deuterium diffusion profiles have been measured by secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The main feature of these pro files is the presence of a plateau on which the H concentration closely mat ches the total N content of the layers. Electrical and photoluminescence st udies of the layers, before and after hydrogen plasma exposure, show that b oth acceptor and donor N-related centers are passivated by hydrogen. These results demonstrate that in ZnSe:N hydrogen passivates the nitrogen accepto rs and the related nitrogen donors. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)09615-2].