Electric Characteristics of Si₃N₄ Films Formed by Directly Radical Nitridation on Si(110) and Si(100) Surfaces

High quality Si 3 N 4 film was formed by the nitridation of Si(110) surface using radical NH. It was found that the gate leakage current through the Si 3 N 4 film is three orders of magnitude smaller than that through the conventional SiO 2 film, and the interface states density at midgap for Si 3 N 4 /Si interface is less than 5 × 10 10 eV -1 cm -2 . High-resolution soft-X-ray-excited Si 2 p spectra were measured for the Si 3 N 4 films formed on Si(100), Si(110) and Si(111). It was found that the crystal orientation of the Si substrate affects the amount of intermediate nitridation states of Si at the Si 3 N 4 /Si interface.