Discovery of Long Range Order in Thin (2-20 NM) SiO2 Films by Ion Beam Analysis

Abstract

AbstractSiO2 films, 2-20 nm thick, were grown on passivated, ordered Si(100) to correlate electrical properties and oxidation rates with processing for ultra-thin gate oxides. Ordered Si(l 00) (1 × 1) stable in ambient air was obtained at room temperature by wet chemical cleaning. The thickest oxides were grown by Rapid Thermal Oxidation at 850°C, the thinnest at room temperature. O was detected by Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) using a combination of ion channeling with the 3.05 MeV 16O(α,α)16O nuclear resonance. It then becomes possible to measure order in thin SiO2 by comparing the total amount of O from rotating random spectra to disordered O detected by ion channeling, and detect the alignment of O with the atoms in Si(100)