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Surface Cleaning for Silicon Epitaxy Using Photoexcited Fluorine Gas

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We studied surface cleaning using photoexcited fluorine gas diluted with hydrogen (UV/F2/H2). We found that UV/F2/H2 cleaning selectively removes native Si oxides from thermal oxides without etching the bulk Si. After UV/F2/H2 cleaning, hydrogen atoms terminate almost all the dangling bonds on the Si surface, and fluorine atoms terminate the few remaining bonds. UV/F2/H2 cleaning also flattens the Si surface. We applied UV/F2/H2 cleaning to Si epitaxy and obtained single-crystal Si films with preannealing and growth temperatures as low as 600° C, 150° C lower than for conventional methods. UV/F2/H2 cleaning is a good dry precleaning method for various processes that include Si epitaxy.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mayumi Shigeno for her XPS analysis and advice, Satoru Watanabe for his IR-ATR analysis, and Masahiko Imai and Takaaki Kumise for their help

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Aoyama, T., Yamazaki, T. & Ito, T. Surface Cleaning for Silicon Epitaxy Using Photoexcited Fluorine Gas. MRS Online Proceedings Library 318, 269–280 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-318-269

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