The interaction of silanes with silicon single crystal surfaces: microscopic processes and structures

This article gives an overview of the interaction of silanes with silicon s ingle crystal surfaces at the atomic level. The various processes that lead to layer formation, including adsorption, dissociation via several interme diate steps, interaction of the dissociation products and island formation, as well as the formation of growth structures are discussed in detail. Aft er a brief description of clean and hydrogen-covered silicon surfaces we tu rn to the interaction of silicon hydrides (SiH4, Si2H6, Si3H8) with Si(1 0 0)-(2 x 1) and Si(1 1 1)-(7 x 7), from adsorption to homoepitaxial layer fo rmation. This is followed by a section on chlorosilanes, where we give part icular attention to processes due to the presence of CI atoms in these mole cules. The topographic information is discussed in correlation with the kin etics of precursor decomposition and island formation in these systems. The following section focuses on kinetic models for growth from precursor mole cules. The predictions of those models are compared with experimental resul ts. This article closes with a review of surface structures and processes a ssociated with tetraethoxysilane and a variety of other substituted silanes . (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.