Reduced temperature preparation of atomically clean Si surfaces to augment CMOS with atomic precision devices

Atomic precision advanced manufacturing (APAM) of electronic devices enables exploration of unique device physics by producing atomically abrupt doping profiles where the dopant density exceeds the solid solubility limit in silicon. Thus, APAM is appealing to augment complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices and sidestep scaling limits. The challenge to integrating APAM with CMOS is thermal – preparing the necessary atomically clean Si surface normally occurs above 850°C, which would destroy many CMOS elements. Here we demonstrate a suitably clean Si surface for APAM, prepared below 600°C, that is compatible with the middle of a CMOS process flow. Through electronic testing and materials characterization, we show high carrier concentrations and low impurity concentrations that are comparable to those from high temperature surface cleans.