Making Silicon ACTIVE

D. K. Gautam*, V. K. Tomar, Chitrarekha Chaudhari, L. S. Patil, J. P . Bange

Department of Electronics, North Maharashtra University,
P. B. No. 80, Jalgaon 425 001 (M.S.)
*e-mail: dkgautam_nmu@hotmail.com
Abstract:Bulk single crystal Silicon is an indirect band gap material and extremely poor light
emitter. However, porous Silicon, Silicon rich SiOx thin films and low dimensional Silicon
have shown the light emission. The quantum confinement effects occurring in the low
dimensional structures created in Silicon make the material ACTIVE. The silicon rich SiO x
films have the advantage of mechanical and chemical stability over the porous silicon as the
light emitter. Here we present the review of the technology for getting light emission from the
silicon based materials. We have initiated the work related to the development of the active
silicon material. Here we present the details of the deposition of the silicon rich SiOx film and
their characterization.
1. Introduction:The microelectronics in silicon has been improving rapidly since its origin, in terms of the
integration density, operating frequency, cost, performance etc. However, the growth in the
opto-electronics in silicon has been hampered due to the inefficient light emitters in silicon.
The microelectronics has reached the verge where it is facing the problems like speed and
power consumption in the interconnects, which can be solved by the integration of the optoelectronics and micro-electronics. This needs the development of the light emitters, i.e. the
laser, in silicon. The crystalline Si (c-Si) has extremely poor quantum efficiency because of
the dominating Augur recombination. In 1990 Canham et. al. (1) reported the visible light
emission from electro-chemically etched silicon called as porous silicon, that paved the ways
towards the silicon light emitters. However, the material was highly reactive and fragile
causing poor chemical and thermal stability making the handling difficult and luminescence
lasted for a short span of time. Further, the wet process used to form the porous silicon is not
compatible with the standard microelectronic processes used for integrated circuits. But it
was evident that, Silicon can emit light when the quantum effects occur in this indirect band
gap material with the nano-scale structure. In subsequent years, the light emission from the
indirect band gap silicon by exploiting the properties of the low dimensional structures such
as silicon nanocrystals2,3 and Si-SiO2 super-lattices4, were reported from a number of
laboratories.
Another breakthrough in the silicon opto-electronic technology occurred with the
experimental evidence of the optical gain in the SiO2 films containing silicon nanocrystals 5.
Recently a few number of reports have been published on the optical amplification, by silicon
nanocrystals, formed by annealing the silicon implanted synthetic silica slabs 6 and plasma
enhanced chemical vapor deposited SiOx films 7. In Jan. 2005, Intel Corporation introduced
an All Silicon Raman Laser based on the Raman Amplification 8. However, to create Raman
effect, high power pump laser is required, which is an disadvantage from the view point of
the power requirements and compactness of the optical integrated systems. On the other
hand, Silicon nanostrctures have shown the electroluminescence and appear to be the most

suitable light emitting structures in Silicon for integration with optical or CMOS VLSI
devices.
The Silicon nanocrystals are generally formed by high temperature annealing of the Silicon
Rich SiOx thin films. We have initiated the work related to development of the Active Silicon
material, for the future development of the light emitter, at North Maharashtra University,
Jalgaon. Here we present the experimental procedure for depositing the silicon rich SiO x
films and their characterization.
2. Deposition of Silicon Rich SiOx Thin Films:
The Si-rich silicon dioxide films were deposited on a silicon monocrystal wafer
<100>. To avoid the effect of native oxide on the absorption spectra of deposited films, the Si
substrates were cleaned before deposition by using hydrogen peroxide and Sulphuric acid
mixture, rinsed in de-ionized water and spin dried in nitrogen atmosphere. The indigenous
thermal CVD system [9] has been used to deposit silicon dioxide films. The organic precursor
hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) and the oxygen (O2) gases are used as source of silicon and
oxygen respectively. These sources are supplied to the CVD reactor in a controlled manner. A
stainless steel bubbler is filled with HMDS liquid chemical. The inert nitrogen gas is used as
a carrier to carry the HMDS in to the reactor chamber. Since, the deposition temperature
affects prominently the optical properties of deposited Silicon rich Silicon oxide films, we
have studied the properties of the films deposited at various temperatures in the range of 775
to 850 0C. The optimized values of different process parameters for the deposition of Si-rich
SiOx films have been listed in Table-I.
Process parameter

Physical value

Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS)

0.3 Lit/min

Oxygen (O2) flow rate

1.5 Lit/min

Deposition time

6 min

Deposition temperatures

775-850 0C

Pressure

760 torr

Table-I: Optimized values of the process parameters used for the deposition of the Si-rich
SiOx films.
The deposited Si-rich SiOx films were characterized for refractive index, film
thickness and stress by using a PHILIPS (SD-1000) Ellipsometer at 632.80 nm wavelength.
The morphological and compositional studies of the deposited SiOx films have been carried
out using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM- JSM-6360) and Energy Dispersive Analysis
of X-ray (EDAX).
3. Results and Discussion:
The variation in refractive index of the deposited Si-rich SiO x films with
corresponding increase in deposition temperature is shown in Figure 1. It is clearly observed
that, the refractive index (R.I.) increases nonlinearly in accordance with the corresponding
increase in deposition temperature. This increase in refractive index with respect to increase
in deposition temperature may be due to the dissociation of Si-H, O-H and Si-OH bonds
present in the film.

Refractive Index

1.65

1.6

1.55

1.5

1.45
775

800

825

850

Deposition Temperature ( C)

Figure 1: Effect of deposition temperature on the refractive index of the deposited Si-rich
SiOx films.

10000

SiO-1

SiKa

9000
8000
7000

Counts

6000
5000
4000

OKa
NKa

2000

SiL2,3

3000

1000
0
0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

10.00

keV

Figure 2: EDAX measurement of the deposited Si-rich SiOx film deposited at the
temperature of 800 0C. (Magnification 10,000 times, Accelerating Voltage = 20
V, Probe Current = 1nA)

The film composition of Si-rich SiOx film was studied using EDAX, which has been
deposited at 800 0C, and the results are shown in Fig. 2. EDAX analysis clearly shows the
presence of elements and their atomic weight in percentage, as listed in Table 2. The
composition uniformity in the films was studied by varying the 1 mm 2 analysis area along the
sample. It is obvious from Table 2 that the weight in percentage of silicon is much greater
than that of oxygen. It clearly indicates the successful formation of Si-rich SiOx film using
thermal CVD with HMDS precursor.
Element

Intensity

Mass%

Atomic%

Silicon (Si)

1.739

90.44

84.35

Oxygen (O)

0.525

9.56

15.65

100.00

100.00

Total

Table-2: The presence of elements and their atomic weight (%)

Conclusion:
Silicon can emit light even if it is an indirect band gap material. But to achieve this,
the Silicon has to be nano-structured so that the quantum effects occur in it. We are
developing the Silicon active material. We have grown the Silicon Rich Silicon Oxide thin
films, by thermal CVD process, using HMDS as precursor. The EDAX measurements clearly
show the atomic percentage of Silicon 84.35, which depicts that films are the Silicon rich
silicon oxide, the first step towards the active material.
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