Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 42, 3-8 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap:2008038

Influence of ion bombardment on structural and electrical properties of SiO₂ thin films deposited from O₂/HMDSO inductively coupled plasmas under continuous wave and pulsed modes

¹ Laboratoire des Matériaux Inorganiques, UMR 6002 CNRS-Université Blaise Pascal, 24 avenue des Landais, 63177 Aubière Cedex, France
² Institut des matériaux Jean Rouxel (IMN), Université de Nantes, CNRS, 2 rue de la Houssinière, BP 32229, 44322 Nantes, France
³ GM-IETR, Université Rennes I, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France

Corresponding author: angelique.bousquet@univ-bpclermont.fr

Received: 15 October 2007
Revised: 21 December 2007
Accepted: 15 January 2008
Published online: 28 March 2008

Abstract

Low pressure Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition is commonly used to deposit insulators on temperature sensitive substrates. In these processes, the ion bombardment experienced by films during its growth is known to have benefits but also some disadvantages on material properties. In the present paper, we investigate the influence of this bombardment on the structure and the electrical properties of SiO₂-like film deposited from oxygen/hexamethyldisiloxane radiofrequency plasma in continuous and pulsed modes. First, we studied the ion kinetics thanks to time-resolved measurements by Langmuir probe. After, we showed the ion bombardment in such plasma controls the OH bond content in deposited films. Finally, we highlight the impressive reduction of fixed charge and interface state densities in films obtained in pulsed mode due to a lower ion bombardment.