RF Plasma Monolayer Doping of Si Nanowires

Abstract

For the first time a combination of monolayer doping with RF plasma treatment was used for low-temperature doping of Si nanowires (NW). To study the doping effect, the back-gate MOSFET formed with Si nanowires fabricated in silicon-on-insulator wafers, was used. Employment of transfer IdVbg characteristics of the back-gate Si NW MOSFETs gives us a possibility to extract source-drain contact resistance, effective electron mobility in the Si NW channel, resistivity and an average doping concentration of the Si NW after RF plasma treatment. It was shown that using an RF plasma treatment with a specific power of (1.0+2.0) W/cm2 for 15 minutes, at which a sample temperature does not exceed 350°C allows imbedding of the dopant impurity in the Si NW up to an average concentration above 1×1017 cm-3.