Impact of annealing temperature and carbon doping on the wetting and surface morphology of semiconducting iron disilicide formed via radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Physical Properties of Fe3Si Films Coated through Facing Targets Sputtering after Microwave Plasma Treatment

“…In physical terms, the surface wetting of the Fe 3 Si films can be commonly attributed to the wetting models of Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter[42][43][44][45]. Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter incorporated the roughness as one of the important parameters in their models, where the former is based on surface alignment and the latter relies on the air groove[42][43][44][45]. However, our result shows a significant alteration of the wetting behavior of Fe 3 Si despite the insignificant change in surface morphology.…”

“…Based on the FESEM and AFM results, the surfaces of all the Fe 3 Si films comprised nano-rough morphology. In physical terms, the surface wetting of the Fe 3 Si films can be commonly attributed to the wetting models of Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter [42][43][44][45]. Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter incorporated the roughness as one of the important parameters in their models, where the former is based on surface alignment and the latter relies on the air groove [42][43][44][45].…”

Wetting state and mechanical property alteration for the Fe3Si films using rapid thermal annealing under various temperatures

“…This is due to the merits of FTS. The facing targets provide a magnetic field that zones out plasma from the vicinity of the substrate holder [ [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] ]. This effectively prevents bombardment damage and reduces unnecessary thermal energy from the plasma during deposition [ [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] ].…”

“…Based on former studies linked to this present work, our research group epitaxially manufactured the Fe 3 Si films onto Si ((111)-orientation) wafers using the FTS [ 1 , 2 ]. The FTS layout comprises a couple of sputtering targets set far from a substrate holder while both targets face each other allowing the magnetic confinement to occur [ [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] ]. This setup allows the machine to produce high-density plasma under low pressure and minimize the plasma damage, to create a seamless film with miniscule stoichiometry error [ [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] ].…”

“…The FTS layout comprises a couple of sputtering targets set far from a substrate holder while both targets face each other allowing the magnetic confinement to occur [ [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] ]. This setup allows the machine to produce high-density plasma under low pressure and minimize the plasma damage, to create a seamless film with miniscule stoichiometry error [ [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] ]. The authors have recently reported the impact of microwave plasma etching under argon (Ar) atmosphere and variation of its power on the physical features of the Fe 3 Si films, where we discovered that the hydrophobic condition for the Fe 3 Si layer without etching turned into a hydrophilic condition after exposing to Ar etching [ 1 ].…”