The focus of the following research was to (1) understand the chemistry involved in nitriding an organosilicate glass substrate prior to tantalum deposition, as well as the effect nitrogen incorporation plays on subsequent tantalum deposition and (2) the reduction of a native oxide, the removal of surface contaminants, and the etching of a HgCdTe surface utilizing atomic hydrogen. These studies were investigated utilizing XPS, TEM and AFM. XPS data show that bombardment of an OSG substrate with NH3 and Ar ions results in the removal of carbon species and the incorporation of nitrogen into the surface. Tantalum deposition onto a nitrided OSG surface results in the initial formation of tantalum nitride with continued deposition resulting in the formation of tantalum. This process is a direct method for forming a thin TaN/Ta bilayer for use in micro- and nanoelectronic devices. Exposure to atomic hydrogen is shown to increase the surface roughness of both air exposed and etched samples. XPS results indicate that atomic hydrogen reduces tellurium oxide observed on air exposed samples via first-order kinetics. The removal of surface contaminants is an important step prior to continued device fabrication for optimum device performance. It is shown here that atomic hydrogen effectively …

NiSi and Ni(Pt)Si, and of the effects of dissociated ammonia on oxide reduction was carried out under controlled ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been used to characterize the evolution of surface composition. Vicinal surfaces on NiSi and Ni(Pt)Si were formed in UHV by a combination of Ar+ sputtering and thermal annealing. Oxidation of these surfaces in the presence of either O+O2 or pure O2 at room temperature results in the initial formation of a SiO2 layer ~ 7 Å thick. Subsequent exposure to O2 yields no further oxidation. Continued exposure to O+O2, however, results in rapid silicon consumption and, at higher exposures, the kinetically-driven oxidation of the transition metal(s), with oxides >35Ǻ thick formed on all samples, without passivation. The addition of Pt retards but does not eliminate oxide growth or Ni oxidation. At higher exposures, in Ni(Pt)Si surface the kinetically-limited oxidation of Pt results in Pt silicate formation. Substrate dopant type has almost no effect on oxidation rate. Reduction of the silicon oxide/metal silicate is carried out by reacting with dissociated NH3 at room temperature. The reduction from dissociated ammonia (NHx+H) on silicon oxide/ metal silicate layer shows selective reduction of the metal oxide/silicate layer, …