A study of electron paramagnetic resonance data demonstrated that E’, a radiation-induced defect that was consistently found in buried oxide films, could also be generated in non-buried oxides after heat treatment in a sufficiently dry atmosphere. The center appeared in samples that had been heated in N2 or O2 when the moisture content was of the order of 1ppm. A near equality of the numbers of E’ centers in the N2- and O2-treated samples implied that the presence of O did not reduce the number of precursor defects. It was suggested that the center was related to a deficiency of H-related species in the ambient, rather than to an O deficiency, as had previously been suggested.

M.E.Zvanut, T.L.Chen: Applied Physics Letters, 1996, 69[1], 28-30