auger electron spectroscopy has shown that reactive ion-plasma sputtering (dry etching) of dielectric films (sio/sub 2/, si/sub 3/n/sub 4/) on silicon under conditions providing for a high etching selectivity results in contamination of the silicon near-surface layer with residual products, mostly carbon. the elemental concentration profiles of the near-surface layer are presented. the kinetics of the surface cleaning by the reactive sputtering in an oxygen atmosphere has been studied. the results of ellipsometric measurements of the thicknesses and indices of refraction of thin films on silicon following the sputtering of the sio/sub 2/ layers and the residual films are given for different sputtering times reactive ion-plasma sputtering in an oxygen atmosphere followed by short-term (30 s) chemical treatment of the silicon wafers in aqueous hydrofluoric acid has been shown to provide a surface state acceptable for the fabrication of large-scale integrated circuits