Abstract
In this report, we present a study of the quinhydrone/methanol (QHY/MeOH) organic passivation technique for a silicon (Si) surface. The roles of p-benzoquinone (BQ) and hydroquinone (HQ), which make up QHY, in controlling the uniformity and coverage of the passivation layer as well as the minority carrier lifetime (τeff) of Si were investigated. The uniformity and coverage of the passivation layer after treatment with diverse mixture ratios of BQ and HQ in MeOH were studied with two different atomic force microscope (AFM) techniques, namely tunneling mode (TUNA) and high-resolution tapping mode AFM (HR-AFM). In addition, the τeff and surface potential voltages (SPV) of passivated surfaces were measured to clarify the relationship between the morphologies of the passivation layers and degrees of surface band bending. The molecular interactions between BQ and HQ in MeOH were also analyzed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). In our study, we successfully demonstrated the role of each molecule for effective Si surface passivation with BQ working as a passivation agent and HQ contributing as a proton (H+) donator to BQ for accelerating the passivation rate. However, our study also clearly revealed that HQ could also hinder the formation of a conformal passivation layer, which raises an issue for passivation over complex surface geometry, especially a nanostructured surface.
Highlights
Certain specialized organic materials are very much of interest because of their many promising applications in various devices
We studied the molecular contribution of BQ and HQ in MeOH solvent for production solvent for production of effective Si surface passivation in terms of (1) uniformity and coverage of the of effective Si surface passivation in terms of (1) uniformity and coverage of the passivation layer; and passivation layer; and (2) formation of the passivation agent, semiquinone (SQ), after preparing
We found that the τeff of HQ/MeOH treated samples never exceeded that from the HF pre-cleaned-only sample, which
Summary
Certain specialized organic materials are very much of interest because of their many promising applications in various devices. The use of organic coatings will reduce cost; in addition, the rising interest in nanostructured devices that require ultra-thin and highly conformal passivation layers further motivates the organic molecular passivation approach regardless of its relatively low stability compared with conventional dielectric passivation approaches [6]. Sci. 2019, 9, x highly conformal passivation layers further motivates the organic molecular passivation approach relatively low stability compared with conventional dielectric passivation approaches [6]. We studied the molecular contribution of BQ and HQ in MeOH solvent for production solvent for production of effective Si surface passivation in terms of (1) uniformity and coverage of the of effective Si surface passivation in terms of (1) uniformity and coverage of the passivation layer; and passivation layer; and (2) formation of the passivation agent, semiquinone (SQ), after preparing (2) formation of the passivation agent, semiquinone (SQ), after preparing solutions with various BQ solutions with various BQ and HQ mixture ratios in MeOH.
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