Low-temperature silicon oxidation with very small activation energy and high-quality interface by electron cyclotron resonance plasma stream irradiation

Oxidation using electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma stream provides a large silicon dioxide growth rate at the initial growth stage (>6 nm/min), a very small activation energy of 0.02 eV for oxidation, and a high-quality interface with interface trap density of 3 x 10(10) cm(-2.)eV(-1). The plasma stream was extracted by a divergent magnetic field from the ECR region and irradiated on a single-crystalline silicon substrate with ion energies of 10-30eV. The high-quality interface was obtained by oxidation without substrate heating and only postoxidation annealing at 400degreesC in hydrogen ambient.