SELECTIVE NUCLEATION BASED EPITAXY (SENTAXY) - INVESTIGATION OF INITIAL NUCLEATION STAGES

A dynamic process of nucleation and growth of CVD-Si over amorphous SiOx (x<2) surface is investigated quantitatively by measuring the cluster density and size distribution as a function of time. All the fine clusters of Si which are formed in the early stage of deposition do not survive, and most of them are going to disappear through the following growth procedures. Instead, large clusters emerge among the fine ones and become dominant. Such a coarsening phenomenon is responsible for the mechanism of selective nucleation in Sentaxy where only one nucleus grows on an artificial nucleation site. © 1989.