Surface morphology of homoepitaxial silicon thin films grown using energetic supersonic jets of disilane

The effect of different chemical mechanisms for adsorption, which depend on the incidence energy of disilane, on the film morphology is investigated by comparing deposition by high (similar to 2 eV) kinetic energy disilane jets, direct chemisorption; low (similar to 0.09 eV) kinetic energy disilane jets and ultra high vacuum chemical vapor deposition, trapping-mediated chemisorption. For substrate temperatures of 500-550 degrees C the mechanism for adsorption does not influence the film morphology as observed for films up to 3300 Angstrom thick, which are comparable in smoothness to the starting substrate, as determined by atomic force microscopy. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.