FTIR-ATR evaluation of organic contaminant cleaning methods for SiO2 surfaces

The effectiveness of cleaning organic contaminants from silicon dioxide (SiO2) surfaces was studied by conducting highly sensitive measurements using Fourier Transform Infrared Attenuated Total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) with a Si prism as the waveguide. To serve as an example, the surface of the prism was oxidized to an order of a few nanometers. The oxidized Si surface film was allowed to stand in the atmosphere and then wet-cleaned in a repeated manner; subsequently its thickness was measured by ellipsometry. Although, various wet-cleaning methods were tested, they only showed values of 0.1-0.2 nm larger than, but not equal to, the original thickness immediately after oxidation. FTIR-ATR measurements of the spectral change after exposure to air revealed that organic species, such as C-CH3 and -(CH2)(n)-, increased with time. Wet-cleaning the sample failed to remove the C-CH3 species, which indicates that they corresponded to the film thickness increment from the original.