Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 47 (2008) pp. 3099-3102 |Previous Article| |Next Article| |Table of Contents|
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(Received October 4, 2007; accepted October 26, 2007; published online April 25, 2008)
We fabricated nanometer-scale Ni dots and NiSi dots on an ultrathin SiO2 layer using remote H2 plasma and demonstrated the feasibility of remote H2 plasma treatment for controlling the areal density of the dots. 1.8-nm-thick-Ni/SiO2 and Ni/Si-quantum dots (QDs)/SiO2 layer were treated with remote H2 plasma generated by the inductive coupling between an external single-turn antenna and a 60 MHz generator. When a Ni/SiO2 was treated with remote H2 plasma at room temperature, Ni nanodot density could be controlled in the range of 109 to 1012 cm-2 by adjusting the plasma conditions. After the remote H2 plasma treatment of the Ni/Si-QDs, the formation of electrically isolated NiSi dots with an areal density of ∼1011 cm-2 was confirmed. These results imply that hydrogen radicals generated in H2 plasma play an important role in improving surface diffusion caused by energy reduction at the Ni/SiO2 interface. The surface potential of the Ni nanodots changes stepwise with the tip bias. This is due to the multistep electron injection into and extraction of Ni nanodots. The minimum tip biases for electron injection into Ni nanodots, NiSi dots and Si-QDs were -0.2, -0.7, and -1.0 V, respectively. This reflected the difference in electron affinity among Ni, NiSi and Si.
URL:
http://jjap.jsap.jp/link?JJAP/47/3099/
DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.47.3099