Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Sub-2 cm/s passivation of silicon surfaces by aprotic solutions

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Pointon, Alex I., Grant, Nicholas E., Pain, Sophie, White, Joshua and Murphy, John D. (2020) Sub-2 cm/s passivation of silicon surfaces by aprotic solutions. Applied Physics Letters, 116 . 121601. doi:10.1063/5.0003704 ISSN 0003-6951.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP-Sub-2-cms-passivation-silicon-surfaces-aprotic-solutions-Murphy-2020.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer.
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (1225Kb) | Preview
Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1063/5.0003704

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Minimizing recombination at semiconductor surfaces is required for the accurate determination of the bulk carrier lifetime. Proton donors, such as hydrofluoric acid and superacids, are well known to provide highly effective short-term surface passivation. We demonstrate here that aprotic solutions based on bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)methane (TFSM) in hexane or pentane can also result in excellent passivation of (100)-orientation silicon surfaces. We show that the optimized TFSM-pentane passivation scheme can measure effective lifetimes up to 20 ms, with a surface recombination velocity of 1.7 cm s^-1 at an excess carrier density of 10^15 cm^-3. Fitting injection-dependent lifetime curves requires chemical passivation and field effect passivation from a negatively charged layer with a charge density of 10^10 –10^11 q cm^-2. The slightly higher recombination velocity of 2.3 cm s^-1 measured with TFSM-hexane can be explained by a lower charge density in the passivating layer, suggesting that the steric hindrance associated with the solvent size could play a role in the passivation mechanism. Finally, phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance experiments confirm that TFSM-based solutions have Lewis acidity without being superacids, which opens up opportunities for them to be used in materials systems sensitive to superacidic environments.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics
Q Science > QD Chemistry
Divisions: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Engineering > Engineering
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Silicon -- Surfaces, Surface chemistry, Semiconductors -- Surfaces, Surfaces (Physics)
Journal or Publication Title: Applied Physics Letters
Publisher: American Institute of Physics
ISSN: 0003-6951
Official Date: 25 March 2020
Dates:
DateEvent
25 March 2020Published
10 March 2020Accepted
Volume: 116
Article Number: 121601
DOI: 10.1063/5.0003704
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit: 25 March 2020
Date of first compliant Open Access: 25 March 2020
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:
Project/Grant IDRIOXX Funder NameFunder ID
EP/M024911/1[EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266
EP/R511808/1[EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266
EP/J01768X/2[EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266
EP/N509796/1[EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266
EP/R513374/1[EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266
EP/L015307/1[EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266
Related URLs:
  • Related dataset

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us