Reactions of some [C, N, O]-containing molecules with Si surfaces: Experimental and theoretical studies

Mechanistic understanding of the reactions of small molecules containing C, N and O with Si surfaces is not only fundamentally interesting but also practically important to the development of SiC, SiN, SiO, SiCN and diamond thin films. This article reviews the recent experimental and theoretical work on the reactions of a dozen of [C, N, O]-containing molecules with single-crystal surfaces of Si, including N precursors (ammonia (NH 3 ), hydrazine (N 2 H 4 ) and hydrazoic acid (HN 3 )), CO-containing molecules (carbon monoxide (CO), formaldehyde (CH 2 O), acetaldehyde (CH 3 CHO), formic acid (HCOOH), methanol (CH 3 OH) and ketene (CH 2 CO)), CN-containing molecules (hydrogen cyanide (HCN), cyanogen (C 2 N 2 ), acetonitrile (CH 3 CN) and methylhydrazine (CH 3 N 2 H 3 )), a CNO-containing molecule (formamide (NH 2 CHO)) and some aromatic heterocyclic compounds (pyrrole (C 4 H 5 N), thiophene (C 4 H 4 S), furan (C 4 H 4 O), pyridine (C 5 H 5 N), pyrazine (C 4 H 4 N 2 ) and s -triazine (C 3 H 3 N 3 )).