Influence of storage time on laser cleaning of SiO 2 on Si

Abstract

The influence of the ‘storage time’ τs on the threshold fluence φcl and the efficiency in dry laser cleaning is investigated. τs denotes the time between the deposition of particles and the cleaning. As a model system we employed silica spheres with diameters of 500 nm and 1500 nm on commercial silicon wafers and single-pulse KrF excimer laser radiation (τFWHM=28 ns). For the 1500-nm silica spheres, φcl was found to increase from about 65 mJ/cm2 to 125 mJ/cm2 for storage times of 4 h and 362 h, respectively. For 500-nm silica spheres the increase in the threshold fluence was less than 20% for storage times up to 386 h.