Raman spectroscopy of reactive ion etching induced subsurface damage

Raman spectroscopy has been used to characterize the surface modifications introduced into Si(100) by reactive ion etching with a CF4/H 2 plasma. Both Raman scattering due to the destruction of crystalline long range order by lattice damage and the stretching modes of protons bonded to Si atoms have been observed without any special sample preparation. Our results are consistent with backscattering and nuclear reaction profiling studies of similarly prepared samples and Raman studies of Si(100) bombarded by low-energy protons and Ar ions.