SILICON-OXIDE THIN-FILMS GROWN BY XE2-ASTERISK EXCIMER LAMP CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION - THE ROLE OF THE SUBSTRATE-TEMPERATURE AND THE WINDOW SUBSTRATE DISTANCE

A promising new technique in photochemical vapour deposition is the in troduction of excimer lamps as vacuum-UV photon sources. Here we repor t the application of excimer lamp chemical vapour deposition for silic on oxide thin film deposition. The high energy photons (lambda = 172 n m) from an Xe2 excimer lamp irradiate a gas mixture of Ar diluted wit h N2O and SiH4. The dependence of growth rate and film properties on t he substrate temperature and the window-to-substrate distance is repor ted. Our results demonstrate that this method is appropriate for depos ition of dense and adherent films at substrate temperatures as low as 100-degrees-C independently of the window-substrate distance. These re sults promise well for technological applications due to the possibili ty of depositing onto large areas even on temperature-sensitive materi als and of coating surfaces of irregular forms.