We have studied the early stages of silicon nitride chemical vapor depositi
on (CVD) on silicon dioxide using medium energy ion scattering. The growth
mode consists of island nucleation followed by coalescence. Similar behavio
r is observed for films grown using different precursors and reactor enviro
nments, indicating that the growth mode is caused by the fundamental nonwet
ting nature of the nitride/oxide interface under the conditions used for CV
D. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)01013-X].