SIMS for hydrogen quantification and structural analysis of amorphous silicon germanium compounds

Summary Hydrogen has been analysed quantitatively in a-Si_1–xGe_x:H alloys by SIMS with H variation from 1×10¹⁹ –1.3×10²² atoms/cm³ and x between 0 and 1. To quantify the absolute H concentration, SIMS measurements have been calibrated with nuclear reaction analysis, which exhibits excellent agreement with SIMS data for the total range of H and Ge variance. From abundances of the molecule ions SiH⁺ and GeH⁺ the fractions H bound to Si or Ge can be discerned and are in good accordance with quantification of SiH and GeH stretching modes in IR spectroscopic measurements. Preferential attachment of H to Si compared to Ge by a factor of 3.5 is determined for glow discharge a-SiGe:H samples; during annealing up to 900 K only small changes of this factor are observed.