Epitaxial Growth with Light Irradiation

Abstract

The effects of light irradiation on crystal growth were investigated in the vapor epitaxial growth of silicon. It was observed that the activation energy of crystal growth decreased with light irradiation. The magnitude of the decrease was 2.1 kcal/mole under the typical experimental condition in an r f heating reactor. Crystal growth was carried out at a temperature lower than that used in the conventional epitaxial method, and the crystal quality of the grown layers was found to be better in the case with light irradiation than that without irradiation. The above results suggest that light irradiation techniques can be used for reducing the degradation of impurity distribution by decreasing the growth temperature. At present, selective crystal growth according to an irradiation pattern can be realized. It is expected that epitaxial growth with light irradiation can be applied to a selective growth process.