Silicon carbide structures are fabricated by fabricating a nitrided oxide layer on a layer of silicon carbide and annealing the nitrided oxide layer in an environment containing hydrogen. Such a fabrication of the nitrided oxide layer may be provided by forming the oxide layer in at least one of nitric oxide and nitrous oxide and/or annealing an oxide layer in at least one of nitric oxide and nitrous oxide. Alternatively, the nitrided oxide layer may be provided by fabricating an oxide layer and fabricating a nitride layer on the oxide layer so as to provide the nitrided oxide layer on which the nitride layer is fabricated. Furthermore, annealing the oxide layer may be provided as a separate step and/or substantially concurrently with another step such as fabricating the nitride layer or performing a contact anneal. The hydrogen environment may be pure hydrogen, hydrogen combined with other gases and/or result from a hydrogen precursor. Anneal temperatures of 400.degree. C. or greater are preferred.