CORRELATION BETWEEN GAS-PHASE COMPOSITION OF RF PLASMA OF ARGON DILUTED TETRAETHYLGERMANIUM AND CHEMICAL-STRUCTURE OF THEREWITH DEPOSITED GE C 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.