Alkali metal and alkali earth metal reduction

A method of removing a contaminant from a surface of a substrate, the method comprising:

• placing the substrate into a substrate processing region of a substrate processing chamber, wherein the substrate comprises an exposed portion;
• etching the substrate by flowing an etching precursor into the substrate processing region while forming a local plasma in the substrate processing region, wherein etching the substrate redistributes a contaminant from an interior surface of the substrate processing chamber onto the substrate raising a first concentration of the contaminant above 1×1011/cm2;
• flowing a second precursor into a remote plasma region within the substrate processing chamber and fluidly coupled to the substrate processing region by a showerhead;
• forming plasma effluents by forming a remote plasma in the remote plasma region;
• flowing the plasma effluents through the showerhead into the substrate processing region;
• removing a portion of the contaminant from the surface of the substrate;
• reducing a contamination from the first concentration to below 1×1010/cm2;
• and
• removing the substrate from the substrate processing region.

A method of removing contaminants from a substrate, the method comprising:

• placing a substrate into a substrate processing region of a substrate processing chamber, wherein the substrate comprises an exposed portion contaminated with a first contamination concentration greater than 1×1011/cm2 of at least one of an alkali metal or an alkali earth metal;
• forming plasma effluents in a remote plasma region by flowing H or O into the remote plasma region while forming a remote plasma, wherein the remote plasma region is fluidly coupled to the substrate processing region;
• flowing the plasma effluents into the substrate processing region;
• and
• reducing a contamination concentration from the first contamination concentration to a second contamination concentration less than 1×1010/cm2.