Investigating the lateral motion of SiGe islands by selective chemical etching

SiGe islands grown by deposition of 10 monolayers of Ge on Si(0 0 1) at 740 °C were investigated by using a combination of selective wet chemical etching and atomic force microscopy. The used etchant, a solution consisting of ammonium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide, shows a high selectivity of Ge over Si_xGe_1−x and is characterized by relatively slow etching rates for Si-rich alloys. By performing successive etching experiments on the same sample area, we are able to gain a deeper insight into the lateral displacement the islands undergo during post growth annealing.     

Effect of H2 and O2 plasma etching treatment on the surface of diamond-like carbon thin film

In this study, we investigated the surface properties of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films for biomedical applications through plasma etching treatment using oxygen (O₂) and hydrogen (H₂) gas. The synthesis and post-plasma etching treatment of DLC films were carried out by 13.56 MHz RF plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system. In order to characterize the surface of DLC films, they were etched to a thickness of approximately 100 nm and were compared with an as-deposited DLC film. We obtained the optimum condition through power variation, at which the etching rate by H₂ and O₂ was 30 and 80 nm/min, respectively. The structural and chemical properties of these thin films after the plasma etching treatment were evaluated by Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. In the case of as-deposited and H₂ plasma etching-treated DLC film, the contact angle was 86.4° and 83.7°, respectively, whereas it was reduced to 35.5° in the etching-treated DLC film in O₂ plasma. The surface roughness of plasma etching-treated DLC with H₂ or O₂ was maintained smooth at 0.1 nm. These results indicated that the surface of the etching-treated DLC film in O₂ plasma was hydrophilic as well as smooth.     

Dry etching of ITO by magnetic pole enhanced inductively coupled plasma for display and biosensing devices

The dry etching of indium tin oxide (ITO) layers deposited on glass substrates was investigated in a high density inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source. This innovative low pressure plasma source uses a magnetic core in order to concentrate the electromagnetic energy on the plasma and thus provides for higher plasma density and better uniformity. Different gas mixtures were tested containing mainly hydrogen, argon and methane. In Ar/H₂ mixtures and at constant bias voltage (−100 V), the etch rate shows a linear dependence with input power varying the same way as the ion density, which confirms the hypothesis that the etching process is mainly physical. In CH₄/H₂ mixtures, the etch rate goes through a maximum for 10% CH₄ indicating a participation of the radicals to the etching process. However, the etch rate remains quite low with this type of gas mixture (around 10 nm/min) because the etching mechanism appears to be competing with a deposition process. With CH₄/Ar mixtures, a similar feature appeared but the etch rate was much higher, reaching 130 nm/min at 10% of CH₄ in Ar. The increase in etch rate with the addition of a small quantity of methane indicates that the physical etching process is enhanced by a chemical mechanism. The etching process was monitored by optical emission spectroscopy that appeared to be a valuable tool for endpoint detection.     

Investigation of etch characteristics of non-polar GaN by wet chemical etching

We characterized the surface defects in a-plane GaN, grown onto r-plane sapphire using a defect-selective etching (DSE) method. The surface morphology of etching pits in a-plane GaN was investigated by using different combination ratios of H₃PO₄ and H₂SO₄ etching media. Different local etching rates between smooth and defect-related surfaces caused variation of the etch pits made by a 1:3 ratio of H₃PO₄/H₂SO₄ etching solution. Analysis results of surface morphology and composition after etching by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) demonstrated that wet chemical etching conditions could show the differences in surface morphology and chemical bonding on the a-plane GaN surface. The etch pits density (EPD) was determined as 3.1 × 10⁸ cm⁻² by atom force microscopy (AFM).     

Reactive ion etching of FePt using inductively coupled plasma

We propose a reactive ion etching (RIE) process of an L1₀-FePt film which is expected as one of the promising materials for the perpendicular magnetic recording media. The etching was carried out using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) RIE system and an etching gas combination of CH₄/O₂/NH₃ was employed. The L1₀-FePt films were deposited on (1 0 0)-oriented MgO substrates using a magnetron sputtering system. The etching masks of Ti were patterned on the FePt films lithographically. The etch rates of ∼16 and ∼0 nm/min were obtained for the FePt film and the Ti mask, respectively. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses provided the average roughness (R_a) value of 0.95 nm for the etched FePt surface, that is, a very flat etched surface was obtained. Those results show that the highly selective RIE process of L1₀-FePt was successfully realized in the present study.     

Structural and optical properties of thin films porous amorphous silicon carbide formed by Ag-assisted photochemical etching

In this work, we present the formation of porous layers on hydrogenated amorphous SiC (a-SiC: H) by Ag-assisted photochemical etching using HF/K₂S₂O₈ solution under UV illumination at 254 nm wavelength. The amorphous films a-SiC: H were elaborated by d.c. magnetron sputtering using a hot pressed polycrystalline 6H-SiC target. Because of the high resistivity of the SiC layer, around 1.6 MΩ cm and in order to facilitate the chemical etching, a thin metallic film of high purity silver (Ag) has been deposited under vacuum onto the thin a-SiC: H layer. The etched surface was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and photoluminescence. The results show that the morphology of etched a-SiC: H surface evolves with etching time. For an etching time of 20 min the surface presents a hemispherical crater, indicating that the porous SiC layer is perforated. Photoluminescence characterization of etched a-SiC: H samples for 20 min shows a high and an intense blue PL, whereas it has been shown that the PL decreases for higher etching time. Finally, a dissolution mechanism of the silicon carbide in 1HF/1K₂S₂O₈ solution has been proposed.     

Precise control of dry etching for nanometer scale air-hole arrays in two-dimensional GaAs/AlGaAs photonic crystal slabs

Precise control of highly anisotropic reactive-ion-beam-etching (RIBE) for GaAs/AlGaAs-based two-dimensional photonic crystals (2DPCs) is investigated in terms of the substrate temperature, T_s, ion accelerating voltage, V_i, and Cl₂ gas pressure, p. T_s is shown to influence the shape of the sidewall, while the balance of the physical etching dominated by the value of V_i and the chemical etching dominated by the value of p is essential for keeping smooth and vertical sidewalls of 100-nm-scale air-holes. 2DPC air-hole patterns are defined by an electron beam (EB) lithography machine and air-holes are dry-etched with the EB resist as an etching mask. The optimized balance between the V_i and p for 0.5-1.0-μm-deep air-holes results in the high-rate-etching regime given at V_i = 500 V and p = 8 × 10⁻⁴ Torr using a 650-nm-thick resist mask, while the optimized balance for 50-nm-scale fine air-holes results in the low-rate-etching regime given at V_i = 330 V and p = 5 × 10⁻⁴ Torr using a 350-nm-thick resist mask. In particular, the latter condition is essential for fabricating topology-optimized 2DPC air-hole arrays with the minimum air-hole-size of 50 nm or less. These process conditions definitely contribute to excellent measured transmission spectra in good agreement with the calculated one in a near-infrared range.     

The effect of fluorine-based plasma treatment on morphology and chemical surface composition of biocompatible silicone elastomer

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been used to investigate the effect of reactive ion etching (RIE) on poly(methylhydrogensiloxane-co-dimethylsiloxane) surface in fluorine-based plasmas. Polysiloxane layers supported on the standard silicon wafers were etched using SF₆ + O₂ or CF₄ + O₂ plasmas. SEM studies show that the polysiloxane morphology depends on plasma chemical composition strongly. Presence of a columnar layer likely covered with a fluorine rich compound was found on the elastomer surface after the CF₄ + O₂ plasma exposure. After the SF₆ + O₂ or CF₄ + O₂ plasma treatment the polysiloxane surface enriches with fluorine or with fluorine and aluminum, respectively. Different morphologies and surface chemical compositions of the silicone elastomer etched in both plasmas indicate different etching mechanisms.     

The effect of etching time on the CdZnTe surface

The surface quality of CdZnTe plays an important role in the performance of sensors based on this material. In this paper the effect of chemical etching on Cd_0.9Zn_0.1Te sensor performance was examined. Sample surfaces were treated with the same concentration 2% Br-MeOH for different etching times (30 s, 2, 4, 6, 8 min). The surfaces were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and I-V Measurement. These results demonstrate that the best surface quality can be obtained by chemical etching for 30 s. Under these experimental conditions, the surface composition Te/Cd + Zn approaches 1, the roughness is lower than 3 nm, and the leakage current shows a value lower than 10 nA.     

Synthesis and characterization of porous silicon layers for 1D photonic crystal application

In this paper, we studied the optical and physical properties of electrochemically prepared porous silicon layers. The atomic force microscopy analysis showed that the etching depth, pore diameter and surface roughness increase as the etching time increased from 30 to 50 mA/cm². By tuning two current densities J₁ = 50 mA/cm² and J₂ = 30 mA/cm², two samples of 1D porous silicon photonic crystals were fabricated. The layered structure of 1D photonic crystals has been confirmed by scanning electron microscopy measurement which showed white and black strips of two distinct refractive index layers. Finally, the measured reflectance spectra of 1D porous silicon photonic crystals were compared with simulated results.     

Nanoimprint lithography using IR laser irradiation

A new technique called “infrared laser-assisted nanoimprint lithography” was utilised to soften the thermoplastic polymer material mR-I 8020 during nanoimprint lithography. A laser setup and a sample holder with pressure and temperature control were designed for the imprint experiments. The polymer was spin coated onto crystalline Si <1 1 1> substrates. A prepatterned Si <1 1 1> substrate, which is transparent for the CO₂ laser irradiation, was used as an imprint stamp as well. It was shown, that the thermoplastic resist mR-I 8020 could be successfully imprinted using the infrared CW CO₂ laser irradiation (λ = 10.6 μm). The etching rate of the CO₂ laser beam irradiated mR-I 8020 resist film under O₂ RF (13.56 MHz) plasma treatment and during O₂ reactive ion beam etching was investigated as well.     

In situ HCl etching of Si for the elaboration of locally misorientated surfaces

We have studied the in situ HCl etching of Si active areas on patterned wafers. After some in situ HCl etching at 20 Torr of Si(1 0 0), we have locally obtained 2 μm long areas with misorientation angles around 4.5° towards 〈1 1 0〉. Furthermore, we have evidenced a recess shape transition from convex (T ≤ 865 °C) to concave (T ≥ 895 °C) as the etch temperature increases, with a nearly flat surface with no facets at T = 880 °C. The morphology of the etched structures at a given time, temperature and PHCl/PH₂ ratio will be a function of the slope lengths and the pattern dimensions. Different kinds of surfaces (rounded areas, facets) were obtained in 3.5 μm × 3.5 μm Si windows after HCl etching at 850 °C during 300 s, depending on the stress within. Thermal oxidations can indeed be used to increase by 65 MPa up to 110 MPa the compressive stress in those Si windows which are bordered by SiO₂ shallow trench isolation. An increase of the misorientation angle from 4.5° up to 6° occurred after the above-mentioned HCl etch when switching from conventional to highly strained Si windows. For the shortest etching times studied here (150 s), a selective etching of 3.5 μm × 3.5 μm Si windows edges is responsible for the misorientation. The etch is then more uniform. Stress gradients might consequently be one of the main misorientation causes. We have also probed the influence of the shallow trench isolation (STI) thickness on the misorientation. A morphological difference before HCl etching has been shown to be responsible for the transition from sloped to rounded areas. A local loading effect may prevail in this case.     

Formation of aligned silicon nanowire on silicon by electroless etching in HF solution

It was demonstrated that the etching in HF-based aqueous solution containing AgNO₃ and Na₂S₂O₈ as oxidizing agents or by Au-assisted electroless etching in HF/H₂O₂ solution at 50 °C yields films composed of aligned Si nanowire (SiNW). SiNW of diameters ∼10 nm were formed. The morphology and the photoluminescence (PL) of the etched layer as a function of etching solution composition were studied. The SiNW layers formed on silicon were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) and photoluminescence. It was demonstrated that the morphology and the photoluminescence of the etched layers strongly depends on the type of etching solution. Finally, a discussion on the formation process of the silicon nanowires is presented.     

Thermal and photochemical reactivity of oxygen atoms on gold nanocluster surfaces

Reduction of oxidized gold nanoclusters by exposures to foreign gases and irradiation of UV photons has been investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Gold nanoclusters with narrow size distributions protected by alkanethiolate ligands were deposited on a TiO₂(1 1 0) surface with dip coating. Oxygen plasma etching was used for removal of alkanethiolate ligands and oxidization of gold clusters. The oxidized gold clusters were exposed to CO, C₂H₂, C₂H₄, H₂, and hydrogen atoms. Although, C₂H₄ and H₂ did not show any indications of reduction of oxidized gold clusters, CO, C₂H₂, and hydrogen atoms reduced the oxides on gold cluster surfaces. Among them, hydrogen atoms were most effective for reduction. Irradiation of UV photons around 400 nm could also reduce the oxidized gold clusters. The photochemical reduction mechanism was proposed as follows. The photo-reduction was initiated by electronic excitation of gold clusters and oxygen atoms activated reacted with carbon atoms at the surfaces of gold clusters. Carbon species were likely absorbed in gold clusters or remained at the boundaries between gold clusters when gold clusters agglomerated during oxygen plasma exposures. As the photochemical reduction progressed, carbon atoms segregated to the surfaces of gold clusters.     

Effect of temperature and silicon resistivity on the elaboration of silicon nanowires by electroless etching

The morphology of silicon nanowire (SiNW) layers formed by Ag-assisted electroless etching in HF/H₂O₂ solution was studied. Prior to the etching, the Ag nanoparticles were deposited on p-type Si(1 0 0) wafers by electroless metal deposition (EMD) in HF/AgNO₃ solution at room temperature. The effect of etching temperature and silicon resistivity on the formation process of nanowires was studied. The secondary ion mass spectra (SIMS) technique is used to study the penetration of silver in the etched layers. The morphology of etched layers was investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM).     

Surface studies of 2,4-pentanedione on γ-Al2O3/NiAl (1 0 0) and NiAl (1 0 0)

The chemical compound 2,4-pentanedione (Hacac) has been shown to etch the oxidized metal surfaces metals such as copper and nickel, but not their unoxidized surfaces. Here it is shown that on the γ-Al₂O₃/NiAl (1 0 0) surface (oxidized NiAl (1 0 0)) etching of aluminum occurs at 170 K and 750 K. Reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) is used to show that Hacac binds to both the clean, metallic and oxidized surfaces, but decomposition and combustion products dominate on the metallic surface and no etching occurs. The binding process that involves a deprotonation reaction of the enol species was identified by redshift in the carbonyl peaks and the appearance of an Al-H peak observed in the IR spectrum. The implication of these results is that there is both an unusual low temperature and high temperature etching of the alumina by bound acac.     

Comparative study of the GaAs(1 0 0) surface cleaned by atomic hydrogen

In attempt to correlate electronic properties and chemical composition of atomic hydrogen cleaned GaAs(1 0 0) surface, high-resolution photoemission yield spectroscopy (PYS) combined with Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and mass spectrometry has been used. Our room temperature investigation clearly shows that the variations of surface composition and the electronic properties of a space charge layer as a function of atomic hydrogen dose display three successive interaction stages. There exists a contamination etching stage which is observed up to around 250 L of atomic hydrogen dose followed by a transition stage and a degradation stage which is observed beyond 700 L of exposure. In the first stage, a linear shift in the surface Fermi level is observed towards the conduction band by 0.14 eV, in agreement to the observed restoration of the surface stoichiometry and contamination removal. The next stage is characterized by a drop in ionization energy and work function, which quantitatively agrees with the observed Ga-enrichment as well as the tail of the electronic states attributed to the breaking As-dimers. As a result of the strong hydrogenation, the interface Fermi level E_F − E_v has been pinned at the value of 0.75 eV what corresponds to the degradation stage of the GaAs(1 0 0) surface that exhibits metallic density of states associated with Ga_As antisites defects. The results are discussed quantitatively in terms of the surface molecule approach and compared to those obtained by other groups.     

The changes in morphology of Si(1 0 0) surface upon dipping in ultrapure water

The changes in morphology and chemical states of Si(1 0 0) surface upon dipping in ultrapure water were investigated by using atomic force microscope and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The oxidation and the etching competitively progressed at the HF-treated Si(1 0 0) surface in ultrapure water, which made the smooth surface rough. However, the surface covered with a thick native oxide film was not etched at all. During the repetition of the oxidation and the etching, the SiO₂-nuclei was, by chance, able to grow up to some size of islands and worked as the protective barrier against the water etching. Thus, the SiO₂-islands would remain without being etched off, whereas rest parts of the surface could be etched off. This selective etching leads the surface morphology to become rough. Both the oxidation and the etching progressed violently as the water temperature and the dipping time increased.     

The role of grain boundaries in the mechanism of plasma immersion hydrogenation of nanocrystalline magnesium films

In this paper, attention in focused on the nanostructured magnesium films for hydrogen storage. It is shown that 2 μm thick Mg film is transformed into MgH₂ film under high-flux and fluence hydrogen plasma immersion ion implantation at 450 K for 15 min. All hydrogen desorbs at temperature about 530 K, which corresponds to the decomposition of MgH₂ → Mg + H₂↑. The macroscopic and microscopic observations show that magnesium film undergoes a high deformation and restructuring during hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reaction. The suggested hydrogenation model is based upon the incorporation of excess of hydrogen atoms in grain boundaries of nanocrystalline Mg film driven by the increase in surface chemical potential associated with the implantation flux. The results provide new aspects of hydriding of thin nanocrystalline film materials under highly non-equalibrium conditions on the surface.     

Effect of surface preparation on the properties of Au/p-Cd1−xZnxTe

The effect of bromine methanol (BM) etching and NH₄F/H₂O₂ passivation on the Schottky barrier height between Au contact and semi-insulated (SI) p-Cd_1−xZn_xTe (x ≈ 0.09-0.18) was studied through current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy technique was utilized to determine the Zn concentration. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for surface composition analysis showed that BM etched sample surface left a Te⁰-rich layer, however, which was oxidized to TeO₂ and the surface [Te]/([Cd] + [Zn]) ratio restored near-stoichiometry after NH₄F/H₂O₂ passivation. According to I-V measurement, barrier height was 0.80 ± 0.02-0.85 ± 0.02 eV for Au/p-Cd_1−xZn_xTe with BM etching, however, it increased to 0.89 ± 0.02-0.93 ± 0.02 eV with NH₄F/H₂O₂ passivation. Correspondingly, it was about 1.34 ± 0.02-1.43 ± 0.02 eV and 1.41 ± 0.02-1.51 ± 0.02 eV by C-V method.