P. Petrik

Porous silicon formation by stain etching

Abstract An empirical study was carried out on the porous silicon layer (PSL) formation process by stain etching on p- and n-type silicon wafers having different doping concentrations. PSL formation differs from the electrochemical etching process, since the top surface of the porous layers is continuously etched during formation. A porosity gradient is developed in the porous layers formed on p-, p+-, n- and n+-type silicon because stain etching, as a wet chemical etching method attacks the pore walls. This complex process can result in limited thickness for PSLs depending on the doping type and concentration of the substrate. The total mass of the silicon dissolved from the top surface and from the pores, was measured by gravimetry. The porosity and thickness values extracted from spectroscopic ellipsometrical (SE) measurements and with the measured mass of dissolved silicon are used for studying the etching process. The structure of the layers was characterized by backscattering spectrometry (BS) and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM). The PSLs exhibit amorphous structure on p-type silicon, while p+ layers have crystalline structure according to ion beam channeling experiments, and XTEM images.

Ellipsometric study of polycrystalline silicon films prepared by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition

Polysilicon layers with thicknesses between 8 and 600 nm deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition at temperatures ranging from 560 to 640 °C were characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) to determine the layer thicknesses and compositions using multilayer optical models and the Bruggeman effective-medium approximation. The dependence of the structural parameters on the layer thickness and deposition temperature have been investigated. A better characterization of the polysilicon layer is achieved by using the reference data of fine-grained polysilicon in the optical model. The amount of voids in the polysilicon layer was independently measured by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). The SE and RBS results show a good correlation. The comparison of the surface roughness measured by SE and atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows that independently of the AFM window sizes, a good correlation of the roughness determined by SE and AFM was obtained.

Characterization of different porous silicon structures by spectroscopic ellipsometry

Abstract The results of multiparameter fitting of spectroscopic ellipsometric (SE) spectra on porous silicon layers (PSL) were connected with the processing parameters (oxidation, etching time, porosity, argon implantation dose). Two optically different types of silicon forms, a bulk-type silicon (c-Si) and polycrystalline-like silicon with enhanced absorption in the grain boundaries (p-Si) needed to be mixed with voids in the appropriate ratio, and the PSL had to be divided in depth in several different sections in order to obtain the best fit. The sectioning reflects the effect of upper and lower interfaces or inhomogeneity in depth. The effective porosity and the sublayer thicknesses are determined with high precision. In the case of argon implantation, we used the dielectric function of c-Si and implanted amorphous silicon (a-Si) mixed with voids. The regression analysis of SE spectra clearly shows the effect of different doses of implantation. The sectioning reflects that to the full range of argon ions the porous silicon became amorphous and denser. The overall thickness of the originally porous layer also significantly reduced (from 670 nm to 320 nm) due to the argon implantation.

Ellipsometric characterization of damage profiles using an advanced optical model

Damage created by ion implantation into single crystalline silicon was characterized with an optical model based on the coupled half-Gaussian model developed by Fried et al [J. Appl. Phys. 71, 2835 (1992)]. In the improved optical model the damage profile was described by sublayers with thicknesses inversely proportional to the slope of the profile. This method allows a better resolution at the quickly changing parts of the profile, and a better approximation of the Gaussian profile with the same number of sublayers. A fitting procedure, which we call “multipoint random search,” was applied to minimize the probability of getting in a local minimum. The capabilities of our method were demonstrated for amorphizing doses using different ions and energies. The improved fit quality and the correlation with results of backscattering spectrometry basically supported the optical model.

Nanocrystal characterization by ellipsometry in porous silicon using model dielectric function

Porous silicon layers were prepared by electrochemical etching of p-type single-crystal Si (c-Si) of varying dopant concentration resulting in gradually changing morphology and nanocrystal (wall) sizes in the range of 2–25nm. We used the model dielectric function (MDF) of Adachi to characterize these porous silicon thin films of systematically changing nanocrystal size. In the optical model both the surface and interface roughnesses have to be taken into account, and the E0, E1, and E2 critical point (CP) features are all described by a combination of several lineshapes (two-dimensional CP, excitonic, damped harmonic oscillator). This results in using numerous parameters, so the number of fitted parameters were reduced by parameter coupling and neglecting insensitive parameters. Because of the large number of fitted parameters, cross correlations have to be investigated thoroughly. The broadening parameters of the interband transitions in the measured photon energy range correlate with the long-range orde...

Oxidation of SiC investigated by ellipsometry and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry

Oxidation of SiC was performed in Ar–O2 mixture of atmospheric pressure at 1100 °C and compared with that of Si. The partial pressure of O2 varied from 100 to 1000 mbar, while the oxidation time ranged from 0.5 to 45 h. The thickness of the oxide films was determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. The time and the pressure dependence of the oxidation kinetics of SiC are well described by the modified Deal–Grove model. In the diffusion-limited region, even for the faster case, the oxidation kinetics of the C-terminated face of SiC is not clearly limited by oxygen indiffusion, as for pure silicon. To interpret the ellipsometry spectra, two models of possible structure were used. In the case of the one-layer model, for layer thicknesses above 30 nm, the refractive index of the oxide layers is identical to that of thermally oxidized Si, and it increases rapidly with decreasing thickness below about 15 nm. This increase is significantly larger for C-terminated than fo...

Comparative study of ion implantation caused damage depth profiles in polycrystalline and single crystalline silicon studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry

Abstract Damage created by ion implantation of Ar+ ions into polycrystalline (p-Si) and single-crystalline silicon (c-Si) was characterized using Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE), Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). To create buried disorder, Ar+ ions with an energy of 100 keV were implanted into the samples. Ion doses were varied from 5×1013 to 6.75×1014 cm−2. The parameters of the implantation were kept identical for both p-Si and c-Si. Damage depth profiles have been investigated using SE, RBS, and TEM, in case of c-Si, and SE and TEM in case of p-Si. The results prove the applicability of spectroscopic ellipsometry for characterizing ion implantation caused damage even in polycrystalline silicon, where the RBS method cannot be applied. The RBS and TEM results basically supported the optical model of SE.

High-Speed Imaging/Mapping Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for In-Line Analysis of Roll-to-Roll Thin-Film Photovoltaics

An expanded-beam spectroscopic ellipsometer has been developed and applied toward in situ high-speed imaging/mapping analysis of large area spatial uniformity for multilayer coated substrates in roll-to-roll thin-film photovoltaics (PV). Slower speed instrumentation available in such analyses applies a 1-D detector array for spectroscopic mapping and involves width-wise translation of the ellipsometer optics over the moving coated substrate surface, measuring point-by-point in a time-consuming process. The expanded-beam instrument employs instead a 2-D detector array with no moving optics, exploiting one array index for spectroscopy and the second array index for line imaging across the width of a large area sample. Thus, the instrument enables imaging width-wise and mapping length-wise for uniformity evaluation at the high linear substrate speeds required for real-time, in situ, and online analysis in roll-to-roll thin-film PV. In this investigation, we employ the expanded beam technique to characterize the uniformity of the Ag, ZnO, and n-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers of an a-Si:H n-i-p structure deposited on a flexible polyimide substrate in the roll-to-roll configuration. Spectroscopic ellipsometry data across a line image were collected as the substrate was translated by a roll-to-roll mechanism. Coated areas as large as 12 cm × 45 cm were analyzed in this study for layer thickness and optical properties by applying the appropriate analytical models for the complex dielectric functions of the Ag, ZnO, and n-type a-Si:H layers.

Ellipsometric characterization of oxidized porous silicon layer structures

Abstract Electrochemically prepared porous silicon (PS) layers were oxidized thermally and investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The SE spectra were measured in the range of 270–850 nm with a rotating polarizer ellipsometer. The PS was modelled as a mixture of void and crystalline silicon or fine-grained polycrystalline silicon with enhanced absorption due to extensive grain-boundary regions, i.e. the complex refractive index of the layer was calculated by Bruggeman effective medium approximation. The dielectric function of the fine-grained polycrystalline silicon was taken from the work published by G.E. Jellison, Jr., M.F. Chisholm, S.M. Gorbatkin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 62 (1993) 3348. The porosity, the layer thickness and the composition of the oxidized PS layers were determined. Oxidation at 900°C was performed after a stabilizing heat treatment at 320°C. The oxidation at 900°C for 10 min generated only a few nm silicon dioxide on single crystalline Si while in the case of PS with 57% porosity nearly complete oxidation was found. For PS with 68% porosity complete oxidation was observed.

Ellipsometric study of the polysilicon/thin oxide/single-crystalline silicon structure and its change upon annealing

Polysilicon/thin oxide/single-crystalline silicon structures used as emitters of bipolar transistors were measured using spectroscopic ellipsometry. The thin SiOx layer was deposited on the substrate in a rapid thermal processing chamber, then polysilicon was deposited, implanted with As, and annealed. During annealing the SiOx layer dissolves to islands retarding the diffusion of As, which results in a shallow p-n junction. The process—and as a consequence, the device performance—depends sensitively on the thickness of the oxide layer. We developed optical models to measure the thickness of the SiOx layer at each process step, i.e., after SiOx deposition, after polysilicon deposition, and after annealing. The structure, the surface quality, and the homogeneity of the polysilicon layers were obtained from the same optical model. The thickness of the initially 0.76–0.86 nm SiOx layer decreased to the detection limit of about 0.2 nm during annealing, together with a significant crystallization of the deposi...