The effects of hydrofluoric acid etching of SiO2/Si on surface band bending of p- and n-Si, and the thermal stability of such effects were studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. It was found that near flat band surfaces could be prepared on p- and n-Si by HF etching. However, a significant increase of surface band bending was found when p-Si was treated with an HF concentration of higher than 10%. Raman spectroscopy confirmed that excessive hydrogen incorporation deactivated the boron-dopant in Si by forming an H–B–Si complex. Nevertheless, the boron dopant could be reactivated by annealing at a temperature as low as 120 °C.
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Huang et al. (1992) studied this question.