Effective defect passivation by hydrogen using a laser light source

This paper presents a detailed investigation of the effect of a diode laser-induced thermal process on the hydrogen passivation of boron–oxygen (B–O) defects using numerical modelling. A state-of-the-art numerical model is developed using OpenFOAM based on a finite volume approach. The model considered dissociation, formation and passivation of the B–O defects including four reaction kinetics, and solved the coupled thermal equations and kinetic models. The developed model is then applied to elucidate the influence of passivation, as well as the formation of a B–O defect complex using laser-induced thermal phenomena by varying the key parameters of laser power and exposure time. The results reveal some interesting insights on how the hydrogen evolves out of the B–O defect sites, in the form of dissociation, when the exposure time is higher than 20 s, and hence affect the hydrogenated defect passivation process.