The interaction of Ho with very thin amorphous hydrogenated films was investigated by using real-time in situ infra-red spectroscopy. The H which was bonded in isolated and in clustered network configurations was identified by analyzing the infra-red line positions and kinetics of H uptake in H-depleted, H-deficient and deuterated samples. The use of very thin films was important for this identification because the penetration of atomic H was not diffusion-limited and was therefore very uniform. The analysis yielded an infra-red mode for isolated SiH groups, which was centered at about 1985/cm, and a newly identified infra-red mode, for platelet-like SiH groups, at about 2033/cm. On the basis of this identification, the relative reaction probabilities of H saturation of Si dangling bonds, insertion into strained Si-Si bonds, and H abstraction reaction, were deduced to be 1:0.44:0.26.

The interaction of atomic hydrogen with very thin amorphous hydrogenated silicon films analyzed using in situ real time infra-red spectroscopy A.Von Keudell, J.R.Abelson: Journal of Applied Physics, 1998, 84[1], 489-95