One gigarad passivating nitrided oxides for 100% internal quantum efficiency silicon photodiodes

100% internal quantum efficiency silicon photodiodes with 4- to 8-nm passivating silicon dioxide have been fabricated by rapid thermal nitridation in nitrous oxide and ammonia ambients with the aim of increasing their radiation hardness. The fabricated diodes were exposed to 10.2-eV photons using a hydrogen plasma light source and a normal incidence monochromator. The measured quantum efficiency degradation indicates that the interface trap area density increases sublinearly with dose up to a measured dose of 1 Grad. No noticeable change in quantum efficiency over the range of 50 to 250 nm was observed after exposure to 100% relative humidity. This suggests that the nitrided Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface is practically insensitive to moisture.>