Hydrogenation during thermal nitridation of silicon dioxide

The incorporation of nitrogen and hydrogen during nitridation of SiO2 was studied over the temperature range of 800–1000 °C and for ammonia pressures of 1, 5, and 10 atm. The nitrogen content of the nitrided films was determined with Rutherford‐backscattering spectrometry and elastic‐recoil detection. Nitrogen in‐depth profiles were obtained applying Auger analysis combined with ion sputtering. Hydrogen profiles in the films were measured using nuclear‐reaction analysis. Both the nitrogen and hydrogen incorporation were found to increase with temperature in this range. A higher ammonia pressure primarily increases nitridation of the bulk of the oxide films. Depending on the nitridation conditions, up to 10 at.% of hydrogen may be incorporated. As distinct from the nitrogen profiles, the hydrogen in‐depth profiles are essentially flat. The concentration of hydrogen in the films, however, was always found to be smaller than that of nitrogen: measured H/N ratios varied between 0.25 and 0.85, the smaller valu...