Craters on silicon surfaces created by gas cluster ion impacts

Allen, L.P.; Insepov, Z.; Fenner, D. B.; Santeufemio, C.; Brooks, William; Jones, K. S.; Yamada, Isao

doi:10.1063/1.1506422

Cited by 56 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The total fluence of 1.5 × 10 16 ions/cm 2 has ∼2,000 atoms associated with each charge measured by the Faraday cup. The increased thickness of the undulating surface oxide after GCIB processing may be due to the stochastic overlay of the individual GCIB-impact craters 7,14 or from the growth of a GCIB oxide along the initial, sinusoidal type of thickness variation. The surface oxides formed by GCIB processing have been examined by spectroscopic ellipsometry and XPS.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With use of a final O 2 -GCIB process step (such as in this study) on material that is able to react with oxygen, the post-GCIB material typically forms a thicker (more stoichiometric) oxide surface. 7,14 The XPS analysis of the Ga 3p peak is shown in Fig. 5 for the pre-and post-GCIB GaSb surface.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This average energy is very large compared with the typical binding energy (<0.1 eV/argon atom) of the clusters, and hence, the impacts are highly inelastic. 7 The general GCIB apparatus schematic is shown in Fig. 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A GCIB apparatus schematic. 7 through the use of a transverse magnetic field. Ion fluence is measured by a Faraday cup and, in the system shown later, the sample is mechanically scanned for complete wafer coverage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gas-cluster ion-beam smoothing of chemo-mechanical-polish processed GaSb(100) substrates

Allen¹,

Tetreault²,

Santeufemio³

et al. 2003

Journal of Elec Materi

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Gas-cluster ion-beam (GCIB) processing of surfaces provides individual atoms within an accelerated gas cluster (~1,500 atoms per cluster), an energy approximately equal to the individual bond energy of the target surface atoms. The gas-cluster beam is thus capable of providing smoothing and etching of the extreme surface of numerous semiconductors, metals, insulators, and magnetic materials. For semiconductor material systems, the gascluster processing effect on the surface and subsurface material is of critical interest for device and circuitry application integrity. In the case of III-V GaSb, chemo-mechanical or touch polishing is the final step in the semiconductor-wafer manufacturing process, often leaving scratches of various depths or damage on the polished surface. In this paper, we report the GCIB etching and smoothing of chemical-mechanical polished GaSb(100) wafers. Using a dual-energy, dual gas-cluster source process, ∼100 nm of material was removed from a GaSb(100) surface. Atomic-force microscopy (AFM) imaging and power spectral-density (PSD) analysis shows significant decrease in the post-GCIB root-mean-square (Rms) roughness and peak-tovalley measurements for the material systems. X-ray rocking-curve analysis has shown a 24-arcsec reduction in the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the (111) x-ray diffraction peak of GaSb. High-resolution transmissionelectron microscopy (HRTEM) shows the crystallinity of the subsurface of the pre-and post-GCIB surfaces to be consistent, following the 1 × 10 16 ions/cm 2 total-fluence processes, with dislocation density for both pre-and post-GCIB cases below the HRTEM resolution limit. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates a strong Ga 3p electron binding-energy intensity for galliumoxide formation on the GaSb surface with the use of an oxygen GCIB process. Analysis of the Ga 3p electron binding-energy peaks in the XPS data in conjunction with HRTEM indicates a higher Ga or GaSb content in the nearsurface layer (less stoichiometric-oxide presence) with use of a CF 4 /O 2 GCIB process. The same peak analysis indicates that the surface gallium-oxide state is nearly unchanged, except in thickness, with the use of an O 2 -GCIB second step. The material results suggest that GCIB provides a viable method of chemo-mechanical polish (CMP) damage removal on group III-V material for further device processing.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Gas-cluster ion-beam smoothing of chemo-mechanical-polish processed GaSb(100) substrates

Allen¹,

Tetreault²,

Santeufemio³

et al. 2003

Journal of Elec Materi

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A crystal surface, with an initial average surface roughness of tens or hundreds of angstroms, becomes atomically flat, with the residual roughness of a few angstroms [5,7,8,11]. The GCIB smoothing typically occurs after irradiation by an ionized Ar n (n $ 1000-10 000) cluster beam at a charge fluence of 10 14 -10 16 ions/cm 2 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crater formation and sputtering by cluster impacts

Insepov

Allen²,

Santeufemio³

et al. 2003

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B:

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New horizons in sputter depth profiling inorganics with giant gas cluster sources: Niobium oxide thin films

Ellsworth

Young

Stickle

et al. 2017

Surf Interface Anal

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X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to study a wide variety of material systems as a function of depth (“depth profiling”). Historically, Ar+ has been the primary ion of choice, but even at low kinetic energies, Ar+ ion beams can damage materials by creating, for example, nonstoichiometric oxides. Here, we show that the depth profiles of inorganic oxides can be greatly improved using Ar giant gas cluster beams. For NbOx thin films, we demonstrate that using Arx+ (x = 1000‐2500) gas cluster beams with kinetic energies per projectile atom from 5 to 20 eV, there is significantly less preferential oxygen sputtering than 500 eV Ar+ sputtering leading to improvements in the measured steady state O/Nb ratio. However, there is significant sputter‐induced sample roughness. Depending on the experimental conditions, the surface roughness is up to 20× that of the initial NbOx surface. In general, higher kinetic energies per rojectile atom (E/n) lead to higher sputter yields (Y/n) and less sputter‐induced roughness and consequently better quality depth profiles. We demonstrate that the best‐quality depth profiles are obtained by increasing the sample temperature; the chemical damage and the crater rms roughness is reduced. The best experimental conditions for depth profiling were found to be using a 20 keV Ar2500+ primary ion beam at a sample temperature of 44°C. At this temperature, there is no, or very little, reduction of the niobium oxide layer and the crater rms roughness is close to that of the original surface.

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Craters on silicon surfaces created by gas cluster ion impacts

Cited by 56 publications

References 21 publications

Gas-cluster ion-beam smoothing of chemo-mechanical-polish processed GaSb(100) substrates

Gas-cluster ion-beam smoothing of chemo-mechanical-polish processed GaSb(100) substrates

Crater formation and sputtering by cluster impacts

New horizons in sputter depth profiling inorganics with giant gas cluster sources: Niobium oxide thin films

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