Hydrogen in semiconductors: From basic physics to technology

Hydrogen is incorporated unintenionally is most semiconductors during crystal or epitaxial growth and during many processing steps. The knowledge of how hydrogen interacts with itselt or other defects is of fundamental scientific interest but also of crucial importance for the understanding of processes in device technology and the performance of devices. A few examples will be presented from our work on the electrical and optical properties of hydrogen in semiconductors and connections will be made to device related issues. Subjects addressed are the passivation of shallow donors and acceptors, the interaction of hydrogen with transition metals and the formation of H2 molecules. (C) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.