Effect of Chemical Treatment of a Silicon Surface on the Quality and Structure of Silicon-Carbide Epitaxial Films Synthesized by Atom Substitution

Abstract

The fundamentals of a new technique for the cleaning and passivation of (111), (110), and (100) silicon wafer surfaces by hydride groups, which ensure a high surface purity and smoothness at the nanoscale upon long-term storage of the wafers at room temperature in air, are discussed. A new composition of the passivation solution for the long-term antioxidation protection of silicon surfaces is developed. The proposed solution is suitable for the long-term storage and repeated passivation of silicon wafers. The composition of the passivation solution and the conditions of passivation of the silicon wafers in it are described. Silicon wafers treated using the proposed technique can be used for growing epitaxial semiconductor films and different nanostructures. It is shown that only silicon surfaces prepared in this way allow SiC epitaxial films on silicon to be grown by atom substitution. The experimental dependences of the SiC and GaN film structures grown on silicon on the silicon-surface etching conditions are presented. The developed technique for silicon cleaning and passivation can both be used under laboratory conditions and easily adapted for the industrial production of silicon wafers with an oxidation-resistant surface coating.