Si Etching with a Hot SF6 Beam and the Etching Mechanism

Abstract
Silicon surface etching using a hot SF6 (SF6 *) molecular beam is being investigated in the interest of studying the influence of vibrational energy on surface reactions and developing a damage-free etching technique. The SF6 * beam is produced by the free jet expansion of SF6 gas heated in a quartz furnace. It is seen that SF6 * vibrational energy enhances the Si etch rate. It is also shown that the Arrhenius model modified to take the vibrational energy effect into account can explain the experimental results. The model parameters are then determined to be 6500 cm-1 for activation energy (E a), 0.17 for the efficiency (α) of the vibrational energy used to clear the activation energy barrier, and 5.0 for the frequency factor (A).

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