Relationship between Ozone Oxidation and Stress Evolution on an H-Terminated Si Surface

Abstract

We observed the stress evolution of an H-terminated Si (100) surface during ozone oxidation and the ozone oxidation on a partially H-terminated Si surface of Si (100) and Si (111) to study the surface orientation effect on ozone oxidation. The evolution of stress on the H-terminated Si (100) surface was observed in real-time by an optical micro-mechanical cantilever method. The results show that the stress evolution on the H-terminated Si surface was unexpectedly large when considering that H-termination reduced the sticking amount of oxygen. Both the Si (111) and Si (100) surfaces showed that the rate of ozone oxidation was reduced as hydrogen covered the surfaces. However, at high-H coverage the H-terminated Si (111) surface showed a greater increase of sticking rate than the H-terminated Si (100) surface. The relationship between the oxidation-induced stress and oxidation rate is discussed.