Hydrogen and doping issues in wide band gap semiconductors

Hydrogen may be non-intentionally incorporated in wide band gap semiconductors when they are grown or processed under hydrogen-rich ambients. A possible consequence is a passivation of the dopants. The diffusion of hydrogen in boron doped diamond is presented to illustrate how hydrogen diffusion studies can evidence the existence of H-dopant interactions. Then, the hydrogen-dopant complexes will be investigated in wide band gap II–VI semiconductors and in GaN by infrared vibrational spectroscopy. Complex dissociation and dopant reactivation will finally be discussed together with hydrogen out-diffusion results.