Molecular beam study of laser-induced chemical etching of Si(111) by chlorine molecules.

Chemical etching of Si(111) surface by chlorine molecules under 355 and 560 nm irradiation has been studied using a continuous wave supersonic molecular beam. Only two products, SiCl and SiCl2, were observed. The translational energy distributions of the gaseous products have been measured as a function of laser fluence, and can be fitted with Maxwell–Boltzmann distributions. Study on the effect of translational energy of incident chlorine molecules on the reaction rate is also presented for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]