Silicon oxidation by ozone

Abstract

Understanding the oxidation of silicon has been an ongoing challenge for many decades. Ozone has recently received considerable attention as an alternative oxidant in the low temperature, damage-free oxidation of silicon. The ozone-grown oxide was also found to exhibit improved interface and electrical characteristics over a conventionally dioxygen-grown oxide. In this review article, we summarize the key findings about this alternative oxidation process. We discuss the different methods of O(3) generation, and the advantages of the ozone-grown Si/SiO(2) interface. An understanding of the growth characteristics is of utmost importance for obtaining control over this alternative oxidation process.

Deposition of O atomic layers on Si(100) substrates for epitaxial Si-O superlattices: investigation of the surface chemistry

“…Yet, there are only a limited number of papers that have investigated the initial stages of the O 3 reaction with H-terminated Si, where the reaction can be controlled near/at the atomic layer content [21]. A first principles investigation of the O 3 reaction on H-terminated Si indicated that the O atoms are mainly incorporated in the Si-H bonds with the formation of hydroxyl groups [21], which was not supported by our present investigation. Our model is in agreement with cluster based quantum chemical calculations illustrating that O inserted in the SiSi dimer bonds is the most likely structure at lower temperatures [51].…”

“…We have also recently demonstrated the Si epitaxy from SiH 4 at 500 • C on an O atomic layer deposited using the surface reaction of O 3 on H-terminated Si(100)[14,20]. As opposed to the studies of Mears et al and of Tsu et al, O 3 is used as the O precursor instead of O 2 due to its higher reactivity with the H-terminated Si surface at lower temperatures[21][22][23]. A low deposition temperature can be beneficial for the fabrication of Si-O superlattices as the diffusion of O in Si is limited.…”

Tunnel oxide passivated carrier-selective contacts based on ultra-thin SiO 2 layers

“…As described in literature [4][5][6][7] ozone-grown oxides are found to exhibit improved interface (less strain, transition layer is reduced, high density and less defects due to more saturated Si-O bonds) and electrical properties due to the occurring damage-free oxidation of the silicon surface. In addition, it is assumed that atomic oxygen is the main driving force of the oxidation because it is the species that has the feature to be particularly diffusion active in the SiO x layer and saturate silicon dangling bonds [8].…”

An In-Depth Study Linking the Infrared Spectroscopy and Photoluminescence of Porous Silicon during Ambient Hydrogen Peroxide Oxidation

“…Oxidation of ap-pSi to form oxidized pSi (ox-pSi) is one strategy that is used to stabilize the pSi PL, 4,25 and oxidation also provides a convenient pathway to tailor the pSi surface by using secondary derivatization strategies. 26,27 There have been many methods used to create ox-pSi, including rapid thermal oxidation, 28 hot water annealing, 29 anodic oxidation, 30 and oxidation by O 2 , 31 O 3 , 32 and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) 33 . H 2 O 2 oxidation is attractive because it is relatively safe and fast and can proceed at room temperature; it also does not require sophisticated apparatus.…”