NOVEL POSTETCHING TREATMENT OF SMALL WINDOWS IN OXIDE FOR SELECTIVE EPITAXIAL-GROWTH

A novel post-etching treatment of small windows in oxide for selective epitaxial Si growth is presented. The treatment is a short reactive i on etch in a Cl-2 plasma, applied after window etching. Transmission e lectron microscopy (TEM) analysis of grown structures shows that high quality epitaxy is obtained in windows as small as 46 nm, indicating e ffective removal of fluorocarbon contamination. X-ray photoemission sp ectroscopy (XPS) analysis of the Si surface confirms this. From electr ical measurements on small Si point contacts fabricated with this trea tment, we deduce that the constriction is high quality single-crystall ine Si, in agreement with the TEM and XPS results. (C) 1997 American I nstitute of Physics.