Ar/N 2 O remote plasma-assisted oxidation of Si(100): Plasma chemistry, growth kinetics, and interfacial reactions

Abstract

Effects of ion irradiation on silicon oxidation in electron cyclotron resonance argon and oxygen mixed plasmaThe kinetics of Ar/N 2 O remote plasma-assisted oxidation of Si͑100͒ and the mechanism of nitrogen incorporation at the Si-SiO 2 interface were investigated using mass spectrometry, optical emission spectroscopy, and on-line Auger electron spectroscopy. N 2 , O 2 , and NO are the stable products of N 2 O dissociation in the plasma. The maximum NO partial pressure occurs at 10 W applied rf power; N 2 and O 2 are the predominant products for applied powers greater than 50 W. Ar/N 2 O remote plasmas are prolific sources of atomic O; in contrast, atomic N is not produced in significant concentrations. Ar/N 2 O remote plasma-assisted oxidation was investigated at 300°C for applied rf powers of 5, 20, and 50 W. The oxide growth kinetics are slower than expected for a purely diffusionally controlled process. A diffusion-reaction model that incorporates first-order loss of the oxidizing species as it diffuses through the growing oxide layer fits the data very well. The initial oxidation rate increases linearly with plasma density, suggesting that the near-surface concentration of oxidizing species scales with the surface flux of plasma electrons. Nitrogen is incorporated at the Si-SiO 2 interface in direct proportion to the N 2 partial pressure in the Ar/N 2 O remote plasma. Molecular NO does not react at the Si-SiO 2 interface at 300°C, its role in Si thermal oxynitridation notwithstanding. Nitrogen incorporation at the Si-SiO 2 interface was also achieved by exposure of ultrathin Ar/O 2 plasma oxides to a remote 20 W Ar/N 2 plasma.

Improving Electrical Characteristics of Ta∕Ta[sub 2]O[sub 5]∕Ta Capacitors Using Low-Temperature Inductively Coupled N[sub 2]O Plasma Annealing

“…Many studies presented similar results and have established that the nitridation and oxidation are controlled by the mobility of nitrogen-and oxygen-based adatoms during the N 2 O plasma treatment. [13][14][15][16] N 2 O is a stronger oxidizing agent than O 2 because free O atoms are more easily produced according to the reaction 16,17 The leakage current density in the ICP-N 2 O sample is much lower than that in the PE-N 2 O sample at a negative bias, as displayed in Fig. 1.…”

A comparison of plasma-activated N2∕O2 and N2O∕O2 mixtures for use in ZnO:N synthesis by chemical vapor deposition

“…16 The patterns shown in Fig. 21 This region was somewhat noisy in these spectra, and there were no distinct signals that could be clearly resolved from the N 2 bands. The signals from the atomic species ͑O + /N + ͒ increased slightly with the power at the expense of their molecular parents ͑O 2 + /N 2 + ͒.…”

Diagnóstico De Descarga E Pós-Descarga Em Sistema Cátodo Oco

“…Além da detecção de espécies excitadas tornou-se uma eficiente ferramenta para otimização de processos devido à sua natureza não-perturbativa [8,9]. A espectrometria de massa de análise de gás residual (RGA) também vem ganhando destaque no diagnóstico de plasma em laboratório e na correlação com medidas de titulação química com NO na pósdescarga [4,10,11]. Tais medidas foram empregadas na determinação da densidade de nitrogênio atômico consolidam a fonte de pós-descarga por microondas pela alta densidade de espécies [12,13].…”