Self-formation of a nanonet of fluorinated carbon nanowires on the Si surface by combined etching in fluorine-containing plasma

Abstract

In this work, we report a technique of the self-formation of a nanonet of fluorinated carbon nanowires on the Si surface using a combined etching in fluorine-containing C 4 F 8 /Ar and SF 6 plasmas. Using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we show that after the etching of Si in the C 4 F 8 /Ar plasma, a fluorinated carbon film of nanometer-scale thickness is formed on its surface and its formation accelerates at elevated temperatures. After a subsequent short-term etching in the SF 6 plasma, the film is modified into a nanonet of self-formed fluorinated carbon nanowires.

Plasma-assisted surface nanostructuring of epitaxial Pb1−x Sn x Te (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) films

“…This process has a high sputtering rate and includes predominant PbTe and SnTe binary molecule sputtering [14] resulting in a significant amount of the oversaturated PbTe and SnTe binary molecule vapour over the sputtered surface (figure 6(a)). During the plasma treatment the surface is also heating up (>500 K) [13]. Our result show, that for the Pb 0.6 Sn 0.4 Te film, the 20 s treatment is not sufficient for this heating, while the 40 s treatment is well enough.…”

“…The division of nanostructures into those with a pronounced conical shape and those still maintaining their 55°inclination remained. It should be noted that for the 40-60 s treatment duration the sample surface heated up to 500 K [13].…”

“…The plasma treatment of the films was carried out in radio-frequency inductively coupled argon plasma [5,13]. The RF power was 800 W; the RF bias power was 300 W and the average bombarding argon ion energy was ∼200 eV.…”

Ion-plasma sputtering of Co and Mo nanometer thin films near the sputtering threshold

“…The sputtering rate was determined from the sputtering duration of a metal film of known thickness. Sputtering, as before [22,24], was monitored in situ using a refractometric method by a sharp change in the intensity of the reflected He-Ne laser beam signal (λ = 633 nm) from the sample surface at the moment of a metal film full removal. The reflected signal of the laser beam hit the photodetector and was registered by the computer (PC) through the interface board (figure 1).…”

“…In this work, the sputtering of metal films was monitored in situ with a refractometric method by a sharp change in the intensity of the reflected laser beam signal at a time of a metal film removal [22]. This method of determining the sputtering rate proved itself to be very sensitive, when the laser beam reflection signal was used to control the change in the surface roughness during etching of silicon [23] and the formation of a nanonet fluorocarbon film by combined etching in fluorine-containing plasma [24]. In this work, a precise control of sputtering made it possible to detect the formation of nanostructures at a final stage of the sputtering of metal films.…”