Damage-Free Dry Polishing of 4H-SiC Combined with Atmospheric-Pressure Water Vapor Plasma Oxidation

作者：Hui Yong Deng, Tatsuya Takiguchi, Masaki Ueda, Azusa N. Hattori, Nobuyuki Zettsu, Kazuya Yamamura · 发表于：Japanese Journal of Applied Physics · 年份：2011 · DOI：10.1143/jjap.50.08jg05 · 被引用次数：29 · 研究领域：Advanced Surface Polishing Techniques、Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research、Semiconductor materials and devices

A dry polishing technique combined with the atmospheric-pressure water vapor plasma oxidation has been proposed for the high-integrity smoothing of SiC materials. Optical emission spectra revealed the composition of the plasma, and strong emission from OH, which has a high oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), was observed. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements indicated that the irradiation of water vapor plasma efficiently oxidized the surface of SiC because of the reactive species in plasma such as OH radicals. Swell-like structures were also observed along scratches on the SiC surface. Plasma-assisted polishing using CeO2 abrasive enabled us to reduce the surface roughness of SiC without introducing crystallographical subsurface damage, and an atomically flat scratch-free surface with an rms roughness of less than 0.1 nm was obtained.