Proper annealing for enhanced quality of silicon dioxide thin film on gallium arsenide

Previous work of this research group produced high quality and stable silic on dioxide (SiO2) films on gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrates by liquid pha se deposition (LPD) at room temperature. This study presents a method to im prove these SiO2 layers via a N2O process utilizing fluorine, which control s the physical and chemical properties of the oxides. A maximum growth rate of 1303 Angstrom /h and a refractive index of 1.44 were obtained. Previous LPD deposition had better charge density than did conventional vacuum depo sition. The method proposed herein produces a practical and reliable SiO2 f ilm with a charge density of similar to8.6 x 10(10) cm(-2), improved over p revious LPD SiO2, allowing increased ultralarge-scale integration potential . (C) 2001 The Electrochemical Society.