Kinetics of chemical vapor deposition of Si on Ni substrates from a SiCl4–H2 gas precursor mixture

The kinetics of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of Si on the Ni substrate at deposition temperatures between 850 and 1050 °C using hot-wall reactor and SiCl4–H2 gas mixture was investigated. The deposition rate of Si on the Ni substrate obeyed a linear rate law. The activation energy for Si deposition was approximately 117 kJ/mol at low temperatures, indicating that the rate-limiting step for deposition of Si was the chemical reaction step to deposit Si on the surface of substrate. At high temperatures above 975 °C, activation energy was approximately 29 kJ/mol, indicating that that was the mass transport step of reactant gas species through a gas boundary layer from the main gas stream to the surface of Ni substrate. Under CVD conditions of Si limited by the mass transport step, there was a limit in the increase of the Cl/H input ratio to increase the deposition rate of Si on Ni substrate due to etching effect of Si.