Rapidphoto-oxidationofsiliconatroomtemperature using126nmvacuumultravioletradiation Jun-YingZhang a,b,* ,IanW.Boyd a a Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE, UK b Structure Research Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China Abstract Over the years, photo-oxidation of silicon has been found to proceed fastest when the progressively lower wavelength radiation has been used. Here, we use the shortest UV lamp radiation yet applied to Si oxidation, by employing 126nm radiationfromanArexcimerlampsource.Oxidationratesashighas5nm/minwerereadilyachievableatroomtemperature, which are more than two orders of magnitude higher than those for UV-induced oxidation of silicon using a low pressure mercury lamp at a temperature of 350 8C, and immeasurably higher than for thermal oxidation at room temperature. This enhancementisbelievedtoarisefromtwoeffects:ozoneproducedby126nmlightandmoreef®cientphotochemicalreaction atlowerwavelengths.Furthermore,thicknessesupto9nmhavebeenobtained,whicharenotpossibleinreasonabletimes withconventionaldrythermaloxidationprocessesattemperatureslessthaneven500 8C.The®lmsarefoundbyXPSand FTIR to be stoichiometric in nature. Current±voltage measurements from metal oxide±semiconductor MOS) devices fabricatedusinga9nmSiO 2 layershowedthatleakagecurrentdensitiesaslowas10 6 A/cm 2 atanelectric®eldof1MV/cm canbeobtainedintheas-grown®lms.Furtherpropertiesofthese®lmswillbereported. # 2002ElsevierScienceB.V.All rights reserved. Keywords: Photo-oxidation;Ar  2 excimerlamp;ThinSiO 2 ®lm;Semiconductordevices 1. Introduction Thecontinuedtrendtowardssmallerfeaturesizesin the microelectronics industry and ultra-large scale integrated ULSI) technology is forcing researchers to develop new low temperature growth techniques, which are capable of reducing the overall microfab- ricationthermalbudget,andsuppressingoutdiffusion, redistribution,anddefectgenerationcausedbyhigher temperatureprocessing.Inrecentyears,varioustech- niquestoenhancelowtemperaturegrowthofthinhigh qualitysilicondioxideSiO 2 )®lmshavebeeninves- tigatedusingdifferentapproaches,involvingplasma, ionbeams,ozone,andultravioletUV)radiation[1± 4].Amongstthem,ozoneandUVradiationenhanced oxidation are the most promising techniques since thereisnodamageontheprocessedsurfacecompared withplasmaprocessingandsigni®cantincreasesinthe growthratesareachieved[5±7].Morerecently,photo- oxidation of silicon, germanium and silicon±germa- niumwithexcimerlamphasbeenreported[8±10].In this paper, we use the shortest excimer vacuum UV VUV)lampradiationyetappliedtoSioxidation,by AppliedSurfaceScience1862002)64±68 * Corresponding author. Present address: Electronic and Elec- trical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, LondonWC1E7JE,UK.Tel.: 44-207-679-3196; fax: 44-207-388-9325. E-mail address:jzhang@ee.ucl.ac.ukJ.-Y.Zhang). 0169-4332/02/$±seefrontmatter # 2002ElsevierScienceB.V.Allrightsreserved. PII:S0169-433201)00610-9