Reaction pathways and sources of OH groups in low temperature remote PECVD silicon dioxide thin films

Abstract

Silicon oxides deposited by remote plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (Remote PECVD) can be grown under conditions which produce hydrogen-free SiO₂, and under conditions which promote the incorporation of bonded-hydrogen in either SiH or SiOH groups, but generally not in both. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the deposition conditions leading to OH incorporation, and other post-deposition pathway(s) by which OH can also be incorporated. Two ways by which OH can be incorporated into the oxides are by: (i)intrinsic pathways which are associated with the heterogeneous chemical reactions responsible for film growth; and (ii)extrinsic pathways which refer to incorporation after film deposition stops. The results of our experiments to date show no evidence to support the intrinsic process; all of the infrared (ir) detectable OH is shown to derive from post-deposition or extrinsic sources. We have found two distinct post-deposition sources, one from the deposition chamber ambient during cool-down and one from atmospheric moisture. Each of these sources has a particular spectroscopic signature. We show that OH incorporated from atmospheric moisture occurs as spatially correlated near-neighbor Si-OH groups, whereas OH groups incorporated in the deposition chamber ambient are randomly distributed in the SiO₂ host material.