Abstract

Evaluating the impurity concentrations in semiconductor thin films using time of flight secondary ion mass spec- trometry (ToF-SIMS) is an effective technique. The mass interference between isotopes and matrix element in data interpretation makes the process complex. In this study, we have investigated the doping concentration of phosphorus in, phosphorus doped sili-con thin film on glass using ToF-SIMS in the dynamic mode of operation. To overcome the mass interference between phosphorus and silicon isotopes, the quantitative analysis of counts to concentration conversion was done following two routes, standard rela-tive sensitivity factor (RSF) and SIMetric software estimation. Phosphorus doped silicon thin film of 180 nm was grown on glass substrate using hot wire chemical vapor deposition technique for possible applications in optoelectronic devices. Using ToF-SIMS, the phosphorus-31 isotopes were detected in the range of 10 1 ~10 4 counts. The silicon isotopes matrix element was measured from p-type silicon wafer from a separate measurement to avoid mass interference. For the both procedures, the phosphorus concentration versus depth profiles were plotted which agree with a percent difference of about 3% at 100 nm depth. The concentration of phos-phorus in silicon was determined in the range of 10 19 ~10 21 atoms/cm 3 . The technique will be useful for estimating distributions of various dopants in the silicon thin film grown on glass using ToF-SIMS overcoming the mass interference between isotopes.