title: Schottky Barrier Catalysis Mechanism in Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching of Silicon.
abstract: Metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) is a versatile anisotropic etch for silicon although its mechanism is not well understood. Here we propose that the Schottky junction formed between metal and silicon plays an essential role on the distribution of holes in silicon injected from hydrogen peroxide. The proposed mechanism can be used to explain the dependence of the etching kinetics on the doping level, doping type, crystallographic surface direction, and etchant solution composition. We used the doping dependence of the reaction to fabricate a novel etch stop for the reaction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Stanford University , 382 Via Pueblo, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Ruby A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University , 476 Lomita Mall, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Hymel
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University , 476 Lomita Mall, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Vijay K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Narasimhan
authors.affiliation: Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory , 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, United States.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
keywords: anisotropic etching; dopant etch stop; kinetic rate exponents; metal-assisted chemical etching; nanoporous catalyst; reaction mechanism