M. Gazicki et al., CORRELATION BETWEEN GAS-PHASE COMPOSITION OF RF PLASMA OF ARGON DILUTED TETRAETHYLGERMANIUM AND CHEMICAL-STRUCTURE OF THEREWITH DEPOSITED GE C FILMS/, Journal of vacuum science & technology. A. Vacuum, surfaces, and films, 14(5), 1996, pp. 2835-2841
Citations number
25
Categorie Soggetti
Physics, Applied","Materials Science, Coatings & Films
Quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS) and optical emission spectroscopy (
OES) have been applied to the characterization of rf plasma of tetraet
hylgermanium-argon mixture. QMS analysis shows that under low power in
put conditions, when organogermanium plasma polymer films are deposite
d, the gas phase consists primarily of monomer molecules and their lar
gest fragments. In contrast, at high power input, under conditions of
hydrogenated germanium/carbon alloy film formation, tetraethylgermaniu
m undergoes nearly complete fragmentation forming atomic germanium, at
omic and molecular hydrogen, and a number of hydrocarbon species. A dr
amatic increase of molecular hydrogen concentration with the increasin
g rf power is confirmed by OES actinometric measurements. Strong depen
dence of atomic hydrogen concentration in the gas phase on rf power su
pports the concept of the formation of Ge-H bonding in the films via s
aturation of germanium dangling bond with hydrogen and, therefore, pro
vides an argument to the hypothesis of a competition between Ge-H and
Ge-O bond formation. (C) 1996 American Vacuum Society.