34 a plasma can be made by subjecting a gas at low pressure to radio frequency voltage the etching itself is accomplished by placing the gas at low pressure in a quartz cylinder surrounded by a source of radio frequency power such as a coil or a number of electrodes and then energizing the coil or electrode with high voltage at radio frequency the production of a plasma is indicated by a bright glow within the quartz cylinder after the proper length of time and temperature in plasma equipment 403 the surface of the wafer is passivated properly whereafter it is subjected to platinum sputter deposition or other metalic deposition in deposition equipment 404 then the wafers subjected to other annealing equipment 405 for processing the wafer into what will become useful schottky or ohmic contact devices annealing equipment 405 is standard and further information can be obtained in g e moore ibid more specifically the present invention eliminates the sputter etching step described earlier and performed in 403 39 and eliminates sputter deposition of platinum in 404 39 consequently eliminating various problems discussed in connection with the prior art the basic idea is to treat the silicon wafers in a nitrogen plasma consisting of atomic neutral nitrogen the basic discovery is that such treatment properly passivates the silicon surface and prevents nascent oxide thereon atomic neutral nitrogen is intended to mean not the molecular n 2 nitrogen and not.