Deuterium in germanium: Interaction with point defects

Abstract
Electrical measurements on deuterium plasma-treated germanium samples containing deep level recombination centers show significant neutralization of these defects to depths of ∼80 μm. Chemical measurement of the deuterium profile after similar plasma treatment shows apparent incorporation depths of ∼0.2 μm. We discuss experiments which resolve this discrepancy, and show that hydrogen diffusion into the bulk of the germanium is responsible for the observed neutralization.