Molecular Beam Induced Surface Reactions and Film Growth

Experimental studies are presented concerning the reactivity of simple carbon containing gases with Si(100)2 times 1. Special attention is paid to dissociative chemi-sorption which is motivated by applications in film growth technology. The ability to translationally or vibrationally enhance reaction probabilities is explored in detail using a heatable ceramic nozzle and supersonic expansion seeding techniques. The gases studied were CH_{x }F_{4-x} (x = 0-4), CH_3Cl, CO_ {x} (x = 1,2), rm C_3H _8, rm C_2H_6 , and rm C_2H_2. The majority of these molecules represent systematic deviations from methane, including the creation of strong dipole moments, the enhancement of internal structure, and the formation of multiple bonds. Armed with this knowledge, experiments were conducted in a custom chamber designed for supramonolayer reactions (film growth). We report on several film growth systems (aluminum nitride and gallium nitride) whose growth rates are sensitive to the translational energy of the precursors.