Gas Etching of Germanium Surface with Water Vapors Contained in NitrogenContaining Reagents

The reactions of nitridation of the surface of single-crystallyne germanium in wet ammonia, in hydrazine and hydrazine-hydrate vapors have been studied. In these processes, nitride is formed - a mixture of the α- and β-modifications of germanium nitride Ge3 N4 . In this case, the relative content of the α-phase increases with the degree of humidity of the gas reagent. The formation of nitride is preceded by the process of etching the surface of germanium with water vapor contained in ammonia and hydrazine. The activation energies of this process are ~46 kcal/mol in the case of ammonia, ~53 kcal/mol in the case of concentrated hydrazine and ~48 kcal/mol in the case of hydrazine-hydrate.