Growth of native oxide on a silicon surface

Abstract

The control factors controlling the growth of native silicon oxide on silicon (Si) surfaces have been identified. The coexistence of oxygen and water or moisture is required for growth of native oxide both in air and in ultrapure water at room temperature. Layer-by-layer growth of native oxide films occurs on Si surfaces exposed to air. Growth of native oxides on n-Si in ultrapure water is described by a parabolic law, while the native oxide film thickness on n+-Si in ultrapure water saturates at 10 Å. The native oxide growth on n-Si in ultrapure water is continuously accompanied by a dissolution of Si into the water and degrades the atomic flatness at the oxide-Si interface, producing a rough oxide surface. A dissolution of Si into the water has not been observed for the Si wafer having surface covered by the native oxide grown in air. Native oxides grown in air and in ultrapure de-ionized water have been demonstrated experimentally to exhibit remarkable differences such as contact angles of ultrapure water drops and chemical binding energy. These chemical bond structures for native oxide films grown in air and in ultrapure water are also discussed.

Wet chemical routes to the assembly of organic monolayers on silicon surfaces via the formation of Si–C bonds: surface preparation, passivation and functionalization

“…1). [75][76][77][78] Hydrogenated silicon surfaces are attractive to work with because of their ease of preparation, 78 their relative stability in air 79,80 and during brief water ring procedures, 31,76 and their lack of appreciable reactivity toward a range of common solvents (including acetonitrile, 81 diethyl ether, 46 chlorobenzene, 82 hexane, 83 toluene 84 and mesitylene 85,86 preparation of covalent organic layers by wet chemical methods. 87 Notable exceptions to the typically straightforward conditions are [2+2] and [4+2] cycloaddition reactions under 'dry' UHV conditions.…”

Very high-cycle fatigue failure in micron-scale polycrystalline silicon films: Effects of environment and surface oxide thickness

“…The purely mechanical alternative mechanisms ignore the role of stress-induced oxide thickening, which has been observed now by several investigators. 11,12,18,22 Furthermore, this brings into question whether the polysilicon films utilized in earlier studies were representative due to their relatively thick post-release oxide scales ͑typically ϳ20-30 nm 12 rather than the order of a magnitude smaller native oxide layers expected for polysilicon 31 ͒. Pierron et al, 32 however, have recently shown that the relatively thick post-release oxide layers found in these devices, which were all fabricated in the multiuser MEMS process ͑MUMPs͒ foundry, 33,34 arise from a galvanic effect of the n + -type silicon and gold in concentrated HF during release of the freestanding structures at the end of the fabrication process, a finding that was later confirmed.…”

Design and Fabrication of a Narrow Bandpass Filter with Low Dependence on Angle of Incidence

“…There is indeed an oxide layer with thickness of 3 nm above the top a-Si layer. Based on previous investigations [13,14], the surface of the a-Si layer Figure 2b. The transmittance decreases with increasing number of layers.…”

“…There is indeed an oxide layer with thickness of 3 nm above the top a-Si layer. Based on previous investigations [13,14], the surface of the a-Si layer in contact with air would be oxidized to form and an ultra-thin layer an oxide layer with a thickness of only 3 nm on the top. According to our calculation, the oxidation only shifts the center wavelength with only 2 nm and reduces the peak value in transmittance only 0.4%.…”