Structure of the near‐surface layer of Cz Si wafers subjected to low‐temperature low‐energy ion‐beam treatment

Abstract

The general goal of this work is to study the near‐surface region structure of Cz Si wafers subjected to the low‐temperature (25‐350 °C) low‐energy (300 eV) ion‐beam treatment by hydrogen, helium or argon. The properties of a thin (several nanometers) near‐surface layer of the wafers were investigated using the X‐ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and spectroscopic ellipsometry methods.Based on the conducted study, it was concluded that the ion beam treatment leads to (i) the formation of an oxide layer on the surface and to (ii) silicon amorphization. It is demonstrated that increase of the hydrogen ion‐beam treatment temperature results in (i) improvement of the oxide quality; (ii) reduced thickness of the transition region between the formed oxide layer and silicon bulk (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)