Better control over the onset of microcrystallinity in fast-growing silicon network

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 2597-2603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumita Mukhopadhyay ◽  
Debajyoti Das ◽  
Swati Ray

In view of obtaining a Si:H network at the onset of microcrystallinity at a high deposition rate, we have adopted an intelligent approach to find out a tricky plasma condition in radio frequency (rf) plasma-enhanced chemical vapordeposition that provides a better control on growth introducing retarded microcrystallization. The deposition parameter includes a combination of high electrical power applied to the (SiH4+H2)-plasma and high gas pressure in thereaction chamber. High rf power increases the number density of film-forming precursors as well as atomic H density in the plasma, which helps to increase thefilm deposition rate and to promote microcrystallinity, respectively. In addition,high pressure helps not only to increase the film-growth rate by producing a dense plasma but also retards the microcrystallization process by increasing significantlythe gas phase collision frequency and consequently reducing the effective reactivityof atomic H on the surface of a fast-growing Si:H network. A combination of high-power and high-pressure plasma conditions provides a reasonably wide rangeof H2 dilution to work with and better control in producing a Si:H network at theonset of microcrystallinity, while increasing the film-growth rate.

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 978
Author(s):  
Ming-Jie Zhao ◽  
Zhi-Xuan Zhang ◽  
Chia-Hsun Hsu ◽  
Xiao-Ying Zhang ◽  
Wan-Yu Wu ◽  
...  

Indium oxide (In2O3) film has excellent optical and electrical properties, which makes it useful for a multitude of applications. The preparation of In2O3 film via atomic layer deposition (ALD) method remains an issue as most of the available In-precursors are inactive and thermally unstable. In this work, In2O3 film was prepared by ALD using a remote O2 plasma as oxidant, which provides highly reactive oxygen radicals, and hence significantly enhancing the film growth. The substrate temperature that determines the adsorption state on the substrate and reaction energy of the precursor was investigated. At low substrate temperature (100–150 °C), the ratio of chemically adsorbed precursors is low, leading to a low growth rate and amorphous structure of the films. An amorphous-to-crystalline transition was observed at 150–200 °C. An ALD window with self-limiting reaction and a reasonable film growth rate was observed in the intermediate temperature range of 225–275 °C. At high substrate temperature (300–350 °C), the film growth rate further increases due to the decomposition of the precursors. The resulting film exhibits a rough surface which consists of coarse grains and obvious grain boundaries. The growth mode and properties of the In2O3 films prepared by plasma-enhanced ALD can be efficiently tuned by varying the substrate temperature.


Coatings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Chin-Chiuan Kuo ◽  
Chun-Hui Lin ◽  
Jing-Tang Chang ◽  
Yu-Tse Lin

The Zr film microstructure is highly influenced by the energy of the plasma species during the deposition process. The influences of the discharge pulse width, which is the key factor affecting ionization of sputtered species in the high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) process, on the obtained microstructure of films is investigated in this research. The films deposited at different argon pressure and substrate biasing are compared. With keeping the same average HiPIMS power and duty cycle, the film growth rate of the Zr film decreases with increasing argon pressure and enhancing substrate biasing. In addition, the film growth rate decreases with the elongating HiPIMS pulse width. For the deposition at 1.2 Pa argon, extending the pulse width not only intensifies the ion flux toward the substrate but also increases the fraction of highly charged ions, which alter the microstructure of films from individual hexagonal prism columns into a tightly connected irregular column. Increasing film density leads to higher hardness. Sufficient synchronized negative substrate biasing and longer pulse width, which supports higher mobility of adatoms, causes the preferred orientation of hexagonal α-phase Zr films from (0 0 0 2) to (1 0 1¯ 1). Unlike the deposition at 1.2 Pa, highly charged ions are also found during the short HiPIMS pulse width at 0.8 Pa argon.


2008 ◽  
Vol 600-603 ◽  
pp. 227-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshimine Kato ◽  
Kazuo Sakumoto

SiC growth on as-received and striated Si(001) substrates was studied. SiC films were grown by pulsed-jet chemical vapor deposition using monomethylsilane as a gas source at 780°C. Two kinds of Si surfaces were prepared. One was an as-received Si(001) surface and the other was an striated (scratched) Si(001) surface. It was found that nucleation rate of SiC is quite different between these two kinds of surfaces. The film growth rate was very low for the as-received Si(001) surface compared with the striated surface, and after 8 hours of growth hardly any film was grown and only square-shaped islands were observed. On the other hand, for the undulant substrate about 100nm thick 3C-SiC film was grown after 8 hours of deposition. This film growth rate difference appears to be due to the difference in density of nucleation sites. For the as-received Si(001) surface, nucleation site density appears to be quite small due to the atomically flat surface. On the other hand, for the undulant surface, nucleation site density was large enough for the film to grow faster.


1999 ◽  
Vol 557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Gallagher

AbstractParticle growth in silane RF discharges, and the incorporation of particles into hydrogenated-amorphous-silicon (a-Si:H) devices is described. These particles have a structure similar to a-Si:H, but their incorporation into the device is believed to yield harmful voids and interfaces. Measurements of particle density and growth in a silane RF plasma, for particle diameters of 8-50 nm, are described. This particle growth rate is very rapid, and decreases in density during the growth indicate a major flux of these size particles to the substrate. Particle densities are a very strong function of pressure, film growth rate and electrode gap, increasing orders of magnitude for small increases in each parameter. A full plasma- chemistry model for particle growth from SiHm radicals and ions has been developed, and is outlined. It yields particle densities and growth rates, as a function of plasma parameters, which are in qualitative agreement with the data. It also indicates that, in addition to the diameter >2 nm particles that have been observed in films, a very large flux of SixH,, molecular radicals with × >1 also incorporate into the film. It appears that these large radicals yield more than 1% of the film for typical device-deposition conditions, so this may have a serious effect on device properties.


2005 ◽  
Vol 276 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 431-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ik-Tae Im ◽  
Masakazu Sugiyama ◽  
Yukihiro Shimogaki ◽  
Yoshiyaki Nakano

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. P91-P93 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Kim ◽  
H. Lim ◽  
S. Park ◽  
Y. J. Choi ◽  
S. Suh ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 1940020
Author(s):  
Adnan Mohammad ◽  
Deepa Shukla ◽  
Saidjafarzoda Ilhom ◽  
Brian Willis ◽  
Ali Kemal Okyay ◽  
...  

In this paper a comparative in-situ ellipsometric analysis is carried out on plasma-assisted ALD-grown III-nitride (AlN, GaN, and InN) films. The precursors used are TMA, TMG, and TMI for AlN, GaN, and InN respectively, while Ar is used as purge gas. For all of the films N2/H2/Ar plasma was used as the co-reactant. The work includes real-time in-situ monitored saturation curves, unit ALD cycle analysis, and >500 cycle film growth runs. In addition, the films are grown at different substrate temperatures to observe the impact of temperature not only on the growth rate but on how it influenced the precursor chemisorption, ligand removal, and nitrogen incorporation surface reactions. All three nitride films confirm fairly linear growth character. The growth rate per cycle (GPC) for each film is also measured with respect to rf-plasma power to obtain the surface saturation conditions during ALD growth. The real-time in-situ monitoring of the film growth can really be beneficial to understand the atomic layer growth and film formation in each individual ALD cycle.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document