Improvement of electrical properties of surfactant-templated mesoporous silica thin films by plasma treatment

Surfactant-templated mesoporous silica film draws a great attention due to its superior properties as low-k dielectrics. In this study, electrical properties of the film using Brij-76 surfactant were evaluated after plasma treatment. The selected gases were H₂, O₂, and Ar. X-ray diffraction pattern revealed that mesoporous silica film was highly textured but pore ordering was destroyed when applied rf power and atomic mass of gas increased. Strained Si-O bond near gel pore was reduced and incompletely oxidized Si bond could be controlled after plasma treatment. Optimizing treatment condition can control the structural defects in the wall and as a result, electrical property of the film could be improved. Mesoporous film after H₂ plasma treatment at rf power of 25 W and 100 mTorr showed current density of 3.6 × 10^{- 6} A/cm² at 1.6 MV/cm. As a conclusion, electrical properties of mesoporous silica film can be improved by plasma treatment through controlling reactivity of gas and ion bombardment effect with low power.