ABSTRACT
The microstructure of hydrogen-induced defects in single-crystal silicon has been studied by transmission electron microscopy. These defects occur within 0.1 μm of the surface and have the appearance of platelets along {111} crystallographic planes. The platelets, which have an average size of ~7 nm, exhibit no net Burgers vector and cannot be characterized as intrinsic silicon defects. Possible structural models of the hydrogen-induced microdefects are discussed, and computer simulations of the lattice images are used to explain the contrast observed by high-resolution TEM.
