Investigation of cadmium-hydrogen complexes in silicon

Formation, stability and electric properties of (In-H) and (Cd-H) complexes in Si are studied by the perturbed angular correlation spectroscopy (PAC). The trapping of hydrogen at the acceptors results in three different defect specific electric field gradients (EFGs), which are studied as function of temperature, doping concentration and annealing time. Two of the three observed hydrogen-related EFGs are identified as different charge states of one (Cd-H) acceptor. Within the framework of a model, which takes into account the dynamics of charge fluctuations and Shockley, Read and Hall statistics, the energy level of this (Cd-H) acceptor at E = E_V + 60 meV is deduced. Furthermore, the dynamical behavior of the hydrogen atom within the (Cd-H) complexes is studied. From the relaxation of the PAC signal the hopping rate of the hydrogen atom is extracted. This rate is thermally activated with an activation energy of E = 0.20 eV.