Silicon film growth distribution

Quantitative characterization of plasma-polymer films, especially of ultrathin fluorinated carbon plasma polymer films, has been performed by ToF-SIMS to study changes in the surface composition and molecular distribution. CFX films on silicon and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates were exposed to a pulsed Ar/CHF3 plasma by varying the deposition time from 10-90 s.111-113 The results show differences in film growth and CFX cross linking for the silicon and PET substrates.111... 

The process described above is expected to produce a random distribution of active and passive spots on the electrode interface. But the electrode surface may also be artificially patterned prior to anodization in order to form nucleation centers for pore growth. This may be a lithographically formed pattern in said passive film or a predetermined pattern of depressions in the electrode material itself, which become pore tips upon subsequent anodization. The latter case applies to silicon electrodes and is discussed in detail in Chapter 9, which is devoted to macropore formation in silicon electrodes. 

Ruiz, R. et al.. Dynamic scaling, island size distribution, and morphology in the aggregation regime of submonolayer pentacene films, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 136102, 2003. Pratontep, S. et ah. Correlated growth in ultrathin pentacene films on silicon oxide Effect of deposition rate, Phys. Rev. B 69, 165201, 2004. 

Example of high-temperature treatment of mesoporous silicon into reorganized macropore-size voids can be seen in Fig. 1 (Kim et al. 2006). In this case porous silicon free-standing film serves as a template layer for epitaxial silicon growth, where reorganization controls surface closure of pores and reduction of stacking faults. Sintering controls also electrical properties of the porous layer and the actual distribution of voids which is expected to play a role in the mechanical properties of porous silicon (Martini et al. 2012). 

---