Nitrous oxide gas phase chemistry during silicon oxynitride film growth

N2O gas phase chemistry has been examined as it relates to the problem of u ltrathin film silicon oxynitridation for semiconductor devices. Computation al and analytical kinetics studies are presented that demonstrate: (i) ther e are 5 main reactions in the decomposition of N2O, (ii) the gas compositio n over a 1000K - 1400K temperature range is as follows. N-2 (65.3 - 59.3%), O-2 (32.0 - 25.7%); NO (2.7 - 15.0%), (iii) the N2O decomposition obeys fi rst-order kinetics, and the initial rate law for N2O decomposition is R-ini t = 2k(1)[N2O] which rapidly changes to R-late = k(1)[N2O] as the reaction proceeds, (iv) the branching ratio for the two reactions: N2O + O --> 2NO a nd N2O + O --> N-2 + O-2 lies between 0.1 and 0.5 (0.1 < a < 0.5) and varie s with conditions, (v) the apparent activation energy for the decomposition of N2O is 2.5 eV/molecule (2.4x10(2) kJ/mole), (vi) the rate law for NO fo rmation is R = k(1)[N2O], and (vii) the apparent activation energy for the formation of NO is 2.4 eV/molecule (2.3x10(2) kJ/mole).