The Homogeneous Nucleation of Condensed Silicon in the Gaseous Si‐H‐Cl System

Abstract

The chemical vapor deposition of semiconductor silicon by pyrolysis of and often produces undesirable silicon powder in the reactor, owing to homogeneous nucleation in the gas phase. Experiments reported herein show the temperature‐composition dependence of powdered silicon formation from mixtures. Classical nucleation theory has been applied to the Si‐H‐Cl system to calculate nucleation rates for liquid or solid silicon from each silicon containing homolog. In general, these rates are dual valued, there being both a higher and a lower temperature associated with each. The lower temperature values compared favorably with literature values reported by Eversteijn and with experimental measurements reported here.