Investigation of the Barrier Heights for Dissociative Adsorption of HF on SiC Surfaces in the Catalyst-Referred Etching Process

摘要

We have developed a novel abrasive-free planarization method, which we term catalyst-referred etching (CARE). CARE produces a crystallographically undamaged and smooth SiC surface. To understand the removal mechanism in the CARE process, we performed first-principles reaction path simulations using the simulation tool for atom technology (STATE) program package based on the density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation. The barrier height of the dissociative adsorption of HF on a SiC surface was evaluated by the climbing image nudged elastic band method. We present simulation results for the initial stages of the etching process. The reaction barrier height for adsorption of the first HF is 1.2 eV.