Behavior of hydrogen intentionally introduced by plasma into metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy grown CdTe : As layers

Arsenic doped CdTe layers have been successfully exposed to a hydrogen or d euterium plasma to study the diffusion of these species and their interacti ons with arsenic. It is shown that hydrogen behaves similarly when unintent ionally (during growth) or intentionally (plasma exposure) introduced. Infr ared absorption measurements show that in both cases, identical As-H comple xes are formed. The IR absorption line of deuterium-arsenic complexes has a lso been detected. The concentration of active arsenic acceptors decreases after intentional hydrogen or deuterium diffusion, as a consequence of the formation of these As-H or As-D complexes. But, the diffusion profiles of d euterium show that deuterium in the semiconductor binds also to other As-re lated centers which have not been identified unambiguously. (C) 2000 Americ an Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)09013-7].