Homoepitaxial films grown on Si (100) at 150 °C by remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Abstract
Low‐temperature silicon epitaxy is critical for future generation ultralarge scale integrated circuits and silicon‐based heterostructures. Remote plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition has been applied to achieve silicon homoepitaxy at temperatures as low as 150 °C, which is believed to be the lowest temperature reported to date. Critical to the process are an in situ remote plasma hydrogen cleaning of the substrate surface in an ultrahigh vacuum growth chamber prior to epitaxy, and substitution of thermal energy by remote plasma excitation via argon metastables and energetic electrons to dissociate silane and increase adatom mobility on the surface of the silicon substrate. Excellent crystallinity with very few defects such as dislocations and stacking faults is observed.