Improvement of SiO/sub 2//Si interface properties using high-pressure H/sub 2/O vapor heating

Improvement of electrical characteristics of SiO/sub 2//Si interfaces was achieved by high-pressure H/sub 2/O vapor annealing. Decay in the excess carrier density induced by pulsed laser irradiation was analyzed by free carrier optical absorption and optical interference effect. 2.1/spl times/10/sup 6/-Pa-H/sub 2/O-vapor annealing at 260/spl deg/C for 3 h increased the carrier lifetime from 820 /spl mu/s (initial) to 2.7 ms for n-type CZ-silicon with 100-nm-thick SiO/sub 2/ thermally grown and to 1.9 ms for n-type CZ-silicon with 120-nm-thick SiO/sub 2/ formed by vacuum evaporation.