Abstract
This paper presents a new approach for material removal on silicon at atomic and close-to-atomic scale assisted by photons. The corresponding mechanisms are also investigated. The proposed approach consists of two sequential steps: surface modification and photon irradiation. The back bonds of silicon atoms are first weakened by the chemisorption of chlorine and then broken by photon energy, leading to the desorption of chlorinated silicon. The mechanisms of photon-induced desorption of chlorinated silicon, i.e., SiCl2 and SiCl, are explained by two models: the Menzel–Gomer–Redhead (MGR) and Antoniewicz models. The desorption probability associated with the two models is numerically calculated by solving the Liouville–von Neumann equations for open quantum systems. The calculation accuracy is verified by comparison with the results in literatures in the case of the NO/Pt (111) system. The calculation method is then applied to the cases of SiCl2/Si and SiCl/Si systems. The results show that the value of desorption probability first increases dramatically and then saturates to a stable value within hundreds of femtoseconds after excitation. The desorption probability shows a super-linear dependence on the lifetime of excited states.
Highlights
Manufacturing development involves three paradigms, including craft-based manufacturing, precision-controllable manufacturing, and atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing (ACSM) [1, 2]
atomic layer deposition (ALD) is generally applied to large-area deposition and is difficult to use in the fabrication of ACS features
(1) A new approach for ACSM on silicon is proposed by using chlorine to modify the silicon atoms on the surface and using photon irradiation to desorb the modified silicon atoms in the form of SiCl2/SiCl
Summary
Manufacturing development involves three paradigms, including craft-based manufacturing, precision-controllable manufacturing, and atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing (ACSM) [1, 2]. In addition to the direct manipulation of atoms, a near-single atom layer on the Si (100) surface can be removed by AFM probe via shearinduced mechanochemical reactions between water and silicon [9]. The STM/AFM-based approach has atomic precision, the low processing efficiency limits its application in industries. Another well-known approach is atomic layer deposition (ALD) [10, 11], which is used to create a conformal coating on the surface of semiconductor materials. It is believed that SiCl can be desorbed as long as a suitable wavelength of photons is selected to break the back bonds of chlorinated silicon, and this condition highly relies on the understanding of fundamental mechanisms during the corresponding process. The calculation accuracy is verified, and the corresponding results are presented
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