Separation of the effects of rf sources used for biasing the wafer and for sustaining the plasma is studied by measuring the space profiles of net excitation rate of Ar(3p5) for a two-frequency capacitively coupled plasma as a representation of a typical oxide etcher. Measurements were performed in Ar and in CF4/Ar mixtures. For biasing supply operating at low frequency, 700 kHz, it was shown that the effect of the voltage becomes significantly smaller as the sustaining voltage is changed from high frequency, 13.56 MHz, to very high frequency (VHF), 100 MHz, and it even disappears for pulsed operation in mixtures. This is the result of the low dc self-bias at the VHF electrode that allows the high energy secondary electrons to leave the plasma without excessive contribution to ionization and dissociation.

Two-dimensional images of two-frequency capacitively coupled plasma (2f-CCP) in Ar and Ar/CF4(5%) in an axisymmetric parallel plate reactor are investigated by using 2D-t optical emission spectroscopy. Spatially averaged electron density is obtained by microwave interferometry. Results are presented in the form of 2D profiles of the net excitation rate of Ar(3p5)(εex=14.5 eV) and Ar+(4p4D7/2)(εex=35.0 eV) used as a probe. Large area uniformity of plasma production driven at very high frequency (VHF) (100 MHz) and that driven at high frequency (HF) (13.56 MHz) at low pressure (∼25 mTorr) are compared and discussed under a low frequency (LF) (700 kHz) bias voltage on the wafer. The time modulation of the net excitation rate and the electron density indicate that the LF bias is considerably influential in the production of the plasma and in the confinement of high energy electrons at HF. Functional separation between plasma production in a gas phase and ion acceleration to the wafer is achieved in 2f-CCP excited at VHF (100 MHz). The addition of a small amount of CF4 to the Ar plasma improves the uniformity of the radial profile of the excitation at HF (13.56 MHz).

Two-dimensional alignment of Ge islands is obtained by molecular beam epitaxy of Ge on lithographically patterned Si(001) surfaces composed of periodic arrays of square Si mesas. When the period of the Si mesa arrays is reduced to 140 nm, a “one island on one mesa” relationship is achieved. The Ge islands have an average base width of 85 nm and take on the shape of a truncated pyramid with four {114} facets and a (001) top. The patterning also serves to improve the island size uniformity. The dependencies of the island morphology on the sizes of the Si mesas and Ge coverages are examined to clarify the mechanism of preferential nucleation of Ge islands on the tops of Si mesas.

Enhancement of the growth rate of SiO2 with a rare gas diluted O2 plasma is of interest for application to various microelectronics fabrications. The key is the oxygen metastable atom (D1) density, which has the potential for surface activation. We used vacuum ultraviolet optical absorption spectroscopy to detect O(D1) and found a twofold increase in the density of O(D1) due to the dilution with Ar. The density increase is reasonably explained by the increase of the electron density, the oxygen dissociation fraction, and the Ar metastable density, that are experimentally obtained for low O2 fractions.

A time-modulated and time-averaged two-dimensional (2D) profile of the net excitation rate of Ar(3p5) and Ar+(4p4D7/2) was observed in capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) in Ar as a function of the driving frequency (1–100 MHz) through the use of 2D-t optical emission spectroscopy (OES). A significant improvement in the detection efficiency was achieved for the time-resolved OES. Results are presented for the basic characteristics of 2D and 2D-t profiles of the net excitation rate in Ar from 1 to 100 MHz at 1.0 Torr. For comparison, 2D profiles in CCP between high frequency (13.56 MHz) and very high frequency (100 MHz) at 0.1 Torr and 25 mTorr under the same power dissipation are discussed. The advantages of VHF operation are described and discussed based on the radial uniformity and high density in CCP at low pressure. The appearance of a local emission peak at the edge of the rf electrode is observed in CCP, which is caused by changes in the sustaining mechanism due to increases in the driving frequency.

As microchips become smaller, the threat of damage to the device elements of Si semiconductors by charging during plasma etching will become significant. It will be of first importance to establish a plasma-etching technique that does not involve charging, i.e., “charging-free plasma processing.” Here, we utilize the effect of negative charge acceleration under a double layer in order to neutralize the charge inside a microstructure exposed to plasma etching. We have constructed a dual measurement system consisting of an emission in an interface and a contact hole charging on a SiO2 wafer during etching in two-frequency capacitively coupled plasma (2f-CCP) in CF4/Ar and pure Ar. A reduction in charging voltage is measured in the pulsed operation both of the plasma power source and of the wafer bias in the 2f-CCP in electronegative gases, CF4/Ar.

SUMMARY In an eventual aim to detect background long‐period acoustic waves in the atmosphere that have to be excited incessantly by the same sources as for background free oscillations of the solid Earth, we installed a cross array of barometers in a 10‐km‐wide university forest in central Honshu. The array has 28 microbarometers employing quartz crystal resonator technology with a station spacing of about 500 m. We analysed 1‐s continuous sampling records in a time period from 2002 March to 2003 November to obtain 1‐D frequency–wavenumber spectra and 2‐D frequency–slowness spectra to detect three kinds of waves in the seismic band from 1 mHz to 0.5 Hz. We measured the dispersion curves of these waves with an assumption of stochastic stationary plane waves. The waves we detected are (1) background internal gravity waves travelling from northwest at frequencies from 1 to 5 mHz with a phase velocity of about 50 m s−1, (2) background acoustic waves traveling from northwest at frequencies from 0.01 to 0.1 Hz with a frequency‐dependent phase velocity of about 400 m s−1 at 0.1 Hz and about 800 m s−1 at 0.01 Hz and (3) microbaroms travelling from southeast at frequencies from 0.1 to 0.5 Hz with a phase velocity of about 350 m s−1. Internal gravity waves (1) dominate over the random component of atmospheric turbulence in the relevant frequency range. At higher frequencies the random component with coherent length shorter than 500 m is dominant. Background acoustic waves (2) show clear annual variation with maxima in winter. The annual variation and their incident azimuths suggest their possible origins in mountain regions. Microbaroms (3) are most likely to be excited by standing ocean waves in nearby coastal regions. The power spectra of these acoustic waves were compared to the seismic spectra obtained in the same university forest. Their spectral shapes are mutually similar and change commonly with variable weather conditions, indicating that the microbaroms and microseisms have their common origins.

The influence of the driving frequency on the absolute oxygen atom density in an O2 radio frequency (RF) capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) was investigated using vacuum ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy with pulse modulation of the main plasma. A low-power operation of a compact inductively coupled plasma light source was enabled to avoid the significant measurement errors caused by self-absorption in the light source. The pulse modulation of the main plasma enabled accurate absorption measurement for high plasma density conditions by eliminating background signals due to light emission from the main plasma. As for the effects of the driving frequency, the effect of VHF (100 MHz) drive on oxygen atom production was small because of the modest increase in plasma density of electronegative O2 in contrast to the significant increase in electron density previously observed for electropositive Ar. The recombination coefficient of oxygen atoms on the electrode surface was obtained from a decay rate in the afterglow by comparison with a diffusion model, and it showed agreement with previously reported values for several electrode materials.