Structural, physical and electrical properties of SiO2 thin films formed by atmospheric-pressure plasma technology

Atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) systems operate at atmospheric pressure and low temperatures, eliminating the need forvacuum systems such as vacuum chambers and pumps. In this paper, we studied that silicon dioxide thin films were formedat room temperature (25 oC) and 400 oC by APP processes on silicon wafers. A mixture of hexamethyldisilazane, oxygen,helium, and argon was supplied to the plasma apparatus to form the SiO2 layer. It was observed that a heat insulating layerhaving a thickness of about 22 nm at 25 oC and about 75 nm at 400 oC was formed. Although the surface was clean in samplestreated at 400 oC, small grains were observed in samples processed at room temperature. However, no void or defect in allsamples is observed inside the thin film from the surface. The physical property of the SiO2 thin film carried out by measuringrefractive index and density. The experimental refractive index of silicon dioxide grown by applying heat can be fitted to theSellmeier equation. Also, the film density of the sample at 400 oC using a XRR was observed to be 2.25 g/cm3, similar to thatof the glass, but that of the sample treated at room temp. was very low at 1.68 g/cm3. We also investigated the voltagedependentcurrent change in the oxide material. The SiO2 layer coated at room temperature showed a breakdown electricalfield of 2.5 MV/cm, while oxides deposited at 400 oC showed a characteristic of 9.9 MV/cm.