Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of SiO2 from a Si(CH3)3Cl precursor and mixtures Ar/O2 as plasma gas

Abstract

Silicon dioxide thin films have been prepared at room temperature by remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition in a downstream reactor by using Si(CH 3 ) 3 Cl as a volatile precursor and a microwave electron cyclotron resonance external source. Experiments are done at constant pressure by changing the relative amount of Ar species R in the plasma gas. The aim was to obtain thin films with low density and, therefore, low refractive index. Characterization of the species of the plasma is carried out by optical emission spectroscopy. The changes of the plasma conditions are correlated with the growing rate and microstructure of the films, the latter determined by atomic force microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. It is found that the growing rate of the films decreases and their roughness increases as R increases. The optical properties of SiO 2 thin films are analyzed by optical ellipsometry. A decrease in the refractive index is found for the films grown with high values of R. The possible routes for activation of the precursor and the formation of the SiO 2 thin films are discussed.

Dynamical Monte Carlo methods for plasma-surface reactions

“…The inclusion of a more realistic value for ε in the model is straightforward and can be done with a simple multiplication by ε, as described in [21,46]. For instance, the values = ε 2.4 and 1.5 were reported in [42] and [67], respectively. Alternatively, the expressions above can be maintained if the actual densities of adsorption sites are used.…”

Low refractive index SiOF thin films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering

“…These deposition processes typically require heat treatments at several hundred degrees to eliminate organic compounds that remain otherwise in the films after processing. Plasma enhance chemical vapor deposition is a cleaner environmentally process that allows to grow porous silica films at room temperature [6].…”