Very-Low-Temperature Epitaxial Silicon Growth By Low-Kinetic-Energy Particle Bombardment

Low-kinetic-energy Ar ions have been utilized to control the kinetics of thin film growth as well as to perform very effective predeposition substrate surface cleaning. As a result, epitaxial silicon layers with a perfect crystallinity are grown on silicon substrates at a temperature as low as 350°C. The resistivity of an as-grown epitaxial silicon film as low as 0.0018 Ωcm has been obtained, showing the impurity activation without any heat treatment. A p-n junction formed by growing an n-type epitaxial silicon layer directly on a p-type substrate at 350°C exhibited a low reverse current of 1.88×10-9 A/cm2 at a reverse bias of 5 V.