Comparative analysis of surface texturing of silicon by hydrogen plasma treatments or hydrogen radicals generated by a tungsten hot filament
The goal of this work is to study the main trends and details of the etching of Si by atomic hydrogen. Two different methods have been applied: (i) direct hydrogen plasma treatment using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) set up at 250 °C and (ii) hydrogen radicals generated by a tungsten hot filament treatment at 800 °C. It is found that in all cases the atomic hydrogen causes changes of the Si morphology, which exhibits a pyramid like texture structure. At lower temperature (below 300 °C) hydrogen plasma treatments lead to the formation of structural defects. At higher temperatures generated by the tungsten hot filament treatments, defects in the sub-surface area are not detected, however, tungsten particles were found on the textured Si surface.
