Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
We present evidence of a direct reaction occurring when a hyperthermal fluorine atom beam (4.8 eV) impinges on a fluorinated silicon surface under steady-state etching conditions. When monitoring in-situ and in real time reactive scattering products by means of a quadrupole mass spectrometer, SiF3+ and SiF2+ are detected with bimodal time of flight distributions. The slow component can be described by a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution at the surface temperature. However, the fast component is leaving the surface with velocities substantially higher than thermal and with a flux which does not obey the cosine law. Its translational energy increases with the angle of incidence of the hyperthermal fluorine beam. Etching in the direct reaction mode should result in highly anisotropic profiles by overcoming product desorption limitations.