Optical second-harmonic generation study of incorporation of nitrogen atoms at Si(1 0 0) surfaces

The kinetics of N incorporation into Si layers has been studied on the Si(1 0 0) surface probing surface dangling bonds with an optical second-harmonic (SH) generation during surface exposure to N atoms generated by a radio frequency N₂ plasma. It is observed that SH intensity decreases with N dose. The rate of decrease in SH intensity apparently decreases with surface temperature, whereas total amount of N atoms taken on the surface remains constant. This fact suggests that N atoms are incorporated at the subsurface layers at higher temperatures. It is shown that the N incorporation at the subsurface layers proceeds by the indiffusion of N atoms either directly or indirectly via intermediate, metastable adsorption at the first surface layer. Applying Kisliuk adsorption model, activation energies of the N indiffusion are evaluated to be 0.30 ± 0.03 and 0.34 ± 0.05 eV for the indirect and direct path, respectively.