Silicon doping effect on SF6/O2 plasma chemical texturing

Abstract

A SF6/O2 plasma chemical etching is proposed as a process to texture n- and p-doped c-Si (100) by chemical reactivity of active fluorine species, under conditions avoiding ion bombardment and sputtering. Under this chemical etching regime, we found a strong impact of silicon doping on texturing characteristics and effectiveness. Specifically, an anisotropic square-based hillock-like texturing with 6% reflectivity is obtained for n-type Si. Conversely, for p-type Si, H2 plasma pretreatments are necessary to activate the silicon etching and obtain a nanotextured surface with a reflectivity of 16%. Reflectance from textured silicon surfaces is investigated and correlated to the morphology, surface roughness, and dimension of features.