Bonded Hydrogen and Trapped H2 in a-Si1−xGex:H Alloys

ABSTRACT1H NMR has been employed to study the local environments of bonded hydrogen and trapped molecular hydrogen (H2) in a series of a-Si1−xGex:H alloys. There is a monotonic decrease of bonded hydrogen with increasing x from ≈ 10 at. % at x = 0 (a-Si:H) to ≈ 1 at. % at x = 1 (a-Ge:H). The amplitude of the broad 1H NMR line, which is attributed to clustered bonded hydrogen, decreases continuously across the system. The amplitude of the narrow 1H NMR line, which is attributed to bonded hydrogen essentially randomly distributed in the films, decreases as x increases from 0 to ≈ 0.2. From x = 0.2 to x ≈ 0.6 the amplitude of the narrow 1H NMR line is essentially constant, and for x ≥ 0.6 the amplitude decreases once again. The existence of trapped H2 molecules is inferred indirectly by their influence on the temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation times, T1. Through T1, measurements it is determined that the trapped H2 concentration drops precipitously between x = 0.1 and x = 0.2, but is fairly constant for 0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.6. For a-Si:H (x = 0) the H2 concentration is ≈ 0.1 at. %, while for x ≥ 0.2 the concentration of H2 is ≤ 0.02 at. %.