Study of plasma-nitriding process in Si with in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry

In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry was applied to plasma-nitriding process in single crystalline Si. It was shown that plasma nitridation of Si takes place even at room temperature and the plasma-damaged layer is recovered to single crystalline layer in heating-up process to 1300 K. The disappearance of oxide layer from Si surface during heating-up process at ∼1200 K was observed by in situ model analysis, which was used to determine the start timing of plasma nitridation.