Mass spectrometric study of the chemical interaction of carbon monoxide with a monocrystalline silicon surface

A direct in-situ mass spectrometric study of the chemical interaction of gaseous carbon monoxide (CO) with the surface of a monocrystalline silicon substrate was carried out. The aim of this work was to detect the presence of small amounts of silicon monoxide (SiO) molecules in the gas phase, which are the product of the chemical reaction between CO gas and the silicon substrate surface. The SiO molecule is a marker for the reaction of epitaxial silicon carbide film growth on silicon by the method of coordinated substitution of atoms and has the same mass number as CO2. To unambiguously determine the contribution of CO2 molecules to the mass spectrum, a study of the decomposition of CO2 gas into CO under typical process conditions was conducted. It was determined that at temperatures above 950 °C, the presence of CO2 molecules in the reactor is minimal, which confirms the predominance of SiO molecules in the mass spectra, thus experimentally confirming the theoretical foundations of the method.