This research deals with the fundamental aspects of initial film formation mechanisms from a bare semiconductor surface to a complete thin film under energetic process conditions involving ion beams and plasmas. The key feature of the project is the use of in-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry operated during the film formation process which enables the measurement of nucleation pathways, substrate damage and film properties. The effects of many process parameters can be determined with an economy of experiments and the correlation of process variations on film formation kinetics and resulting film properties can be made in a direct way. A novel immersion ellipsometric technique will be used to access dielectric-film interface optical properties. Relevant and well known electronic materials are chosen for the study: Si, Ge, InP and GaAs substrates with grown and deposited oxides and nitrides. In this way, general and meaningful fundamental materials science relationships will be uncovered and models for film formation developed. %%% This research embodies in-situ materials diagnostics during process study of film formation on semiconductor substrates under energetic process conditions. The objective is to elucidate the film formation mechanisms from the nucleation stage forward and to correlate film formation with electronics properties. In this way an understanding of important processes for technologically relevant materials will be obtained.
