Selective Etching of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon by Hydrogen Plasma

Otobe, Masanori; Kimura, Masao; Oda, Shunri

doi:10.1143/jjap.33.4442

Cited by 41 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Otobe et al 45 found that the roughness of H etched Si increased with increasing substrate temperature, consistent with our results. Other possible explanations for the role of hydrogen have been put forth by a number of authors: Nakata et al suggest that the atomic hydrogen coverage or the growing surface enables surface species to have a higher mobility, 46 explaining the decrease in roughness with decreasing substrate temperature.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Surface evolution during crystalline silicon film growth by low-temperature hot-wire chemical vapor deposition on silicon substrates

2006

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We investigate the low-temperature growth of crystalline thin silicon films: epitaxial, twinned, and polycrystalline, by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition ͑HWCVD͒. Using Raman spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and atomic force microscopy, we find the relationship between surface roughness evolution and ͑i͒ the substrate temperature ͑230-350°C͒ and ͑ii͒ the hydrogen dilution ratio ͑H 2 / SiH 4 =0-480͒. The absolute silicon film thickness for fully crystalline films is found to be the most important parameter in determining surface roughness, hydrogen being the second most important. Higher hydrogen dilution increases the surface roughness as expected. However, surface roughness increases with increasing substrate-temperature, in contrast to previous studies of crystalline Si growth. We suggest that the temperature-dependent roughness evolution is due to the role of hydrogen during the HWCVD process, which in this high hydrogen dilution regime allows for epitaxial growth on the rms roughest films through a kinetic growth regime of shadow-dominated etch and desorption and redeposition of growth species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Surface evolution during crystalline silicon film growth by low-temperature hot-wire chemical vapor deposition on silicon substrates

2006

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“…12 However, Wanka and Schubert 13 observed that the aSi:H etch rate by atomic H, formed with a hot-tungsten filament, reduces for temperatures above room temperature. Two mechanisms can explain this observation: reduced atomic H surface coverage at elevated temperatures due to either enhanced atomic H recombination and desorption 14 or enhanced atomic H diffusion into the bulk. 7 The chemical a)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical sputtering by H2+ and H3+ ions during silicon deposition

Landheer

Goedheer

Poulios

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Physics

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We investigated chemical sputtering of silicon films by H y þ ions (with y being 2 and 3) in an asymmetric VHF Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) discharge in detail. In experiments with discharges created with pure H 2 inlet flows, we observed that more Si was etched from the powered than from the grounded electrode, and this resulted in a net deposition on the grounded electrode. With experimental input data from a power density series of discharges with pure H 2 inlet flows, we were able to model this process with a chemical sputtering mechanism. The obtained chemical sputtering yields were (0.3-0.4) 6 0

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“…6,[9][10][11][12][13] Preferential insertion of atomic hydrogen in strained Si-Si bonds and subsequent silicon etching lead to a higher etch rate of amorphous silicon ͑a-Si: H͒ relative to crystalline Si. [14][15][16] In a recent Letter, 17 we demonstrated that this difference in etch rate can be exploited to determine in situ the phase composition of silicon films in the c-Si: H growth regime. In this letter we introduce a quantification of the etch product density in terms of the absolute atomic hydrogen flux.…”

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confidence: 95%

The atomic hydrogen flux to silicon growth flux ratio during microcrystalline silicon solar cell deposition

Dingemans

Donker

Hrunski

et al. 2008

Applied Physics Letters

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The H flux to Si growth flux ratio is experimentally determined under state-of-the-art silicon thin-film deposition conditions by employing the recently introduced etch product detection technique. Under the technologically relevant high-pressure depletion conditions and for different process parameter settings such as pressure, SiH4 concentration, rf power, and excitation frequency, it was demonstrated that the microcrystalline to amorphous silicon phase transition is uniquely and reactor independently determined by the flux ratio of H and Si growth species.

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Selective Etching of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon by Hydrogen Plasma

Cited by 41 publications

References 20 publications

Surface evolution during crystalline silicon film growth by low-temperature hot-wire chemical vapor deposition on silicon substrates

Surface evolution during crystalline silicon film growth by low-temperature hot-wire chemical vapor deposition on silicon substrates

Chemical sputtering by H2+ and H3+ ions during silicon deposition

The atomic hydrogen flux to silicon growth flux ratio during microcrystalline silicon solar cell deposition

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