ELECTRON-PARAMAGNETIC RESONANCE OF HYDROGEN IN SILICON

A review of the investigations by means of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) of hydrogen and hydrogen-related defects in crystalline silicon is presented. The main features of the EPR center Si-AA9 (bond-centered hydrogen), which is known as the hydrogenic analogue of the anomalous muonium (Mu*) in silicon, are discussed. It was found that the process of annealing the AA9 center is characterized by an activation energy, E = 0.48 +/- 0.04 eV with a second-order pre-exponential factor, K0 = (1.25 +/- 2.5) x 10(-7) cm3/s. A detailed investigation by EPR of the defect (Si-AA1), which we identify as the hydrogen-related shallow donor in a positive charge state, is also presented. In particular it is shown that the H-related shallow donor is a helium-like center and its wave function has C2v symmetry. Moreover, the main features of the series of EPR spectra in silicon characteristic for the implantation of hydrogen are presented.