Low-temperature plasma-deposited silicon epitaxial films: Growth and properties

Demaurex, Bénédicte; Bartlome, Richard; Seif, Johannes P.; Geissbühler, Jonas; Alexander, Duncan T. L.; Jeangros, Quentin; Ballif, Christophe; De Wolf, Stefaan

doi:10.1063/1.4892095

Title: Low-temperature plasma-deposited silicon epitaxial films: Growth and properties

Journal Article · Tue Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4892095· OSTI ID:1167178

Demaurex, Bénédicte ^[1]; Bartlome, Richard ^[1]; Seif, Johannes P. ^[1]; Geissbühler, Jonas ^[1]; Alexander, Duncan T. L. ^[2]; Jeangros, Quentin ^[2]; Ballif, Christophe ^[1]; De Wolf, Stefaan ^[1]

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Neuchatel (Switzerland)
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne (Switzerland)

Low-temperature (≤ 180 °C) epitaxial growth yields precise thickness, doping, and thermal-budget control, which enables advanced-design semiconductor devices. In this paper, we use plasma-ehanced chemical vapor deposition to grow homo-epitaxial layers and study the different growth modes on crystalline silicon substrates. In particular, we determine the conditions leading to epitaxial growth in light of a model that depends only on the silane concentration in the plasma and the mean free path length of surface adatoms. For such growth, we show that the presence of a persistent defective interface layer between the crystalline silicon substrate and the epitaxial layer stems not only from the growth conditions but also from unintentional contamination of the reactor. As a result of our findings, we determine the plasma conditions to grow high-quality bulk epitaxial films and propose a two-step growth process to obtain device-grade material.

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Research Organization:: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Neuchatel (Switzerland)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0006335

OSTI ID:: 1167178

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 116, Issue 5; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 19 works

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