Paramagnetic defects related to positive charges in silicon oxynitride films

Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is used to explore the origin of positive charges in silicon oxynitride thin films formed in a N2O ambient. A new type of paramagnetic center in as-grown oxynitrides appears as a sin gle peak in the ESR spectrum with a zero crossing g value of 2.0006. This v alue suggests that the paramagnetic center is a kind of E' center. We inves tigate the quantitative behavior of the positive charge center and the para magnetic center through their density changes induced by vacuum ultraviolet irradiation and hydrogen annealing. Based on the similar behavior of both centers, we propose that the paramagnetic centers can account for a signifi cant part of the positive charges specific to oxynitrides.