Plasma oxidation of Si membrane
As Jim suggested, we are not only going to reproduce what Chris and Tom did in the Nature paper but also trying to test the charge screening effect based on different salt concentrations.
To do such experiments, we need to charge our Si membrane and at the same time oxidize it. At the end of the process we will have oxide charge on the membrane. Jim told me Chris and Tom did this before using the sputtering system in Hopeman. Can we use this equipment at this time?
Anyway I have contacted Sean (RIT cleanroom staff) as a backup. He told me we could use the Drytek Quad Plasma Etcher for this job. This system can generate oxygen plasma at a fixed temperature of 35C. But we need to play with processing parameters such as pressure, power and gas flow rate. Can we use the same parameters that Chris and Tom used in the sputtering machine? (If we need to do this at RIT)
The UV/Ozone cleaner was also suggested. I don’t know if this process can generate oxide charge but we can try it definitely.