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Sub-2 cm/s passivation of silicon surfaces by aprotic solutions
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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.
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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
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 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QC Physics Q Science > QD Chemistry |
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| 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: |
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| 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: |
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