Limiting step involved in the thermal growth of silicon oxide films on silicon carbide

Ian Vickridge (1) , I. Trimaille (1) , J.J. Ganem (1) , S. Rigo (1) , C. Radtke , I.J.R. Baumvol , F.C. Stedile

1 GPS - Groupe de Physique des Solides

Thermal growth of silicon oxide films on silicon carbide in O2 was investigated using oxygen isotopic substitution and narrow resonance nuclear reaction profiling. This investigation was carried out in parallel with the thermal growth of silicon oxide films on Si. Results demonstrate that the limiting steps of the thermal oxide growth are different in these two semiconductors, being diffusion limited in the case of Si and reaction limited in the case of SiC. This fact renders the growth kinetics of SiO2 on SiC very sensitive to the reactivity of the interface region, whose compositional and structural changes can affect the electrical properties of the structure

Mots clés: isotope effects; nuclear chemical analysis; oxidation; reaction rate constants; silicon compounds; surface chemistry; surface composition; surface diffusion; surface structure; wide band gap semiconductors

Ian Vickridge, I. Trimaille, J.J. Ganem, S. Rigo, C. Radtke, et al.. Limiting step involved in the thermal growth of silicon oxide films on silicon carbide. Physical Review Letters, 2002, 89, pp.256102. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.256102⟩. ⟨hal-00002619⟩