Method and apparatus for processing surface of semiconductor layer

A method of processing that surface of a semi-conductor layer on a substrate where atoms of the semi-conductor layer are bonded to atoms of contaminants, comprising the steps of:

• loading the substrate into a first chamber;
• keeping the first chamber highly reduced in pressure while exhausting it;
• irradiating the surface of said semiconductor layer with vacuum ultraviolet in the highly-reduced pressure in the first chamber to allow the energy of said ultraviolet to cut bonds between the atoms of the surface of said semiconductor layer and the atoms of the contaminants;
• and
• supplying ions of an inactive gas onto the surface of said semiconductor layer while irradiating it with the vacuum ultraviolet, thereby forming floating potential of said ions above the surface of said semiconductor layer and causing said ions to collide against the atoms of said contaminants to eliminate them from the surface of said semiconductor layer, carrying said substrate from said first chamber into a second chamber through a passage, pressures in said passage and said second chamber being highly reduced, and forming a film on the surface of said semiconductor layer.