Publications

Societal needs related to demographics, resources, and human behavior will drive technological advances over the next 20 years. Nanotechnology is anticipated to be an important enabler of these advances, and thus maybe anticipated to have significant influence on new systems approaches to solving societal problems as well as on extending current science and technology-based applications. To examine the potential implications of nanotechnology a societal needs-driven approach is taken. Thus the methodology is to present the definition of the problem, and then examine system concepts, technology issues, and promising future directions. We approach the problem definition from a national and global security perspective and identify three key areas involving the condition of the planet, the human condition, and global security. In anticipating societal issues in the context of revolutionary technologies, such as maybe enabled by nanoscience, the importance of working on the entire life cycle of any technological solution is stressed.

Atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) of Si has been demonstrated by using remote He plasma low energy ion bombardment to desorb H from an H-passivated Si(100) surface at low temperaturea and subsequently chemisorbing Si2H6 on the surface in a self-limiting fashion. Si substrates were prepared using an RCA clean followed by a dilute HF dip to provide a clean, dihydride-terminated (1 × 1) surface, and were loaded into a remote plasma chemical vapor deposition system in which the substrate is downstream from an r.f. noble gas (He or Ar) glow discharge in order to minimize plasma damage. An in situ remote H plasma clean at 250°C for 45 min was used to remove surface O and C and to provide an alternating monohydride and dihydride termination, as evidenced by a (3 × 1) reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) pattern. It was found necessary to desorb the H from the Si surface to create adsorption sites for Si- bearing species such as Si2H6. Remote He plasma bombardment for 1-3 min was investigated over a range of temperature (250°C-410°C), pressures (50-400 mTorr) and r.f. powers (6-30 W) in order to desorb the H and to convert the (3 × 1) RHEED pattern to a (2 × 1) pattern which is characteristic of either a monohydride termination or a bare Si surface. It was found that as He pressures and r.f. powers are raised the plasma potential and mean free paths are reduced, leading to lower He bombardment energies but higher fluxes. Optimal He bombardment parameters were determined to be 30 W at 100 mTorr process pressure at 400°C for 1-3 min. He was found to be more effective than Ar bombardment because of the closer match of the He and H masses compared with that between Ar and H. Monte Carlo TRIM simulations of He and Ar bombardment of H-terminated Si surfaces were performed 3o validate this hypothesis and to predict that approximately 3 surface H atoms were displaced by the incident He atoms, with no bulk Si atom displacement for He energies in the range 15-60 eV. The He bombardment cycles were followed by Si2H6 dosing over a range of partial pressures (from 10-7 Torr to 1.67 mTorr), temperatures (250°C-400°C) and times (from 20s to 3 min) without plasma excitation, because it is believed that Si2H6 can chemisorb in a self-limiting fashion on a bare Si surface as two silyl (SiH3) species, presumably leading to a H-terminated surface once again. The Si2H6 dosing pressures and times corresponded to saturation dosing (about 106 langmuirs). Alternate Si2H6 dosing and He low energy ion bombardment cycles (about 100-200) were performed to confirm the ALE mode of growth. It was found that the growth per cycle saturates with long Si2H6 dosing at a level which increases slightly with He bombardment time. At 400°C, for 2 min He bombardment at 100 mTorr and 30 W, the growth per cycle saturates at about 0.1 monolayers cycle-1, while for 3 min He bombardment the Si growth saturates at about 0.15 monolayers cycle-1. It was also confirmed that the growth is achieved only by using alternate He bombardment and Si2H6 dosing. He bombardment alone for a comparable time (3 min × 100 cycles) causes a negligible change in the Si film thickness (less than 5 Å). Similarly, thermal growth using Si2H6 under these conditions for (3 min × 100 cycles) causes negligible deposition (less than 5 Å). © 1993.