Film thicknesses of post-annealed samples were 250 ± 10 nm. After annealing, the samples were exposed to hydrogen plasma to terminate dangling bond defects accompanying hydrogen atoms in the Si-QDSL. The flow rate of H2, plasma power

density, plasma frequency, process pressure, and electrode distance were 200 sccm, 2.60 W/cm2, 60 MHz, 600 Pa, and 3 cm, respectively. The selleck treatment temperature was varied from 200°C to 600°C. To evaluate the hydrogen diffusion coefficient in the Si-QDSL, the samples were treated at 300°C for STI571 price 20 min, 400°C for 10 min, 500°C for 3 min, and 600°C for 1 min. The depth profiles of the hydrogen concentration were measured by SIMS. In the measurements, Ce+ ions were used to measure the hydrogen depth profiles. Also, the depth was calibrated by the etching rate of the Si-QDSL. Crystalline silicon was used as the standard sample to evaluate the hydrogen concentration. The accuracy of the hydrogen concentration by the SIMS measurement was ± 40%. In addition, for measurements of Raman scattering spectra and ESR, treatment temperature was varied CH5183284 chemical structure from 200°C to 600°C and the treatment time was fixed at 60 min. The thicknesses of surface damaged layers formed by 60-min HPT were estimated by spectroscopic ellipsometry and cross-sectional

TEM. The surface morphologies of Si-QDSLs after a 60-min HPT were measured by AFM. The etching of the surface damaged layer was performed Morin Hydrate by RIE using CF4 + O2 gas (4% O2 + 96% CF4). The gas flow rate, process pressure, and plasma power density were 10 sccm, 4 Pa, and 0.221 W/cm2, respectively. The surface morphologies after etching were evaluated by AFM and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Results and discussion An average hydrogen concentration of 8.2 × 1022 cm-3 was almost uniformly incorporated in the superlattice films before thermal annealing. After annealing at 900°C, the average hydrogen concentration decreased to 1.4 × 1020 cm-3. After HPT, the hydrogen concentration increased. Figure 1 shows the depth profiles of hydrogen concentrations of

Si-QDSL samples treated at 300°C for 20 min, 400°C for 10 min, 500°C for 3 min, and 600°C for 1 min. The oscillations with small amplitudes in the depth profiles are due to the matrix effect caused by carbon in the Si-QDSLs. The influence of the matrix effect can be negligible. In addition, structure of the Si-QDSL is almost uniform in the depth direction. Therefore, one can believe the shape of the hydrogen depth profile, which is important to determine the hydrogen diffusion coefficient. The diffusion coefficients can be estimated from these depth profiles. The hydrogen diffusion process follows the diffusion equation (1) where D is the diffusion coefficient and C is the hydrogen concentration at depth x and time t.