Measurements of thin oxide films of SiO2/Si(100)

Abstract

The 16O(d, p)17O nuclear reaction yield has been employed to measure the thickness of thin silicon dioxide films (0.7–12.5 nm) grown over Si(100) substrates, using incident deuterons with an energy of 825 keV and a detection angle of 150°. Interfering spectral contributions from proton groups originating with the 28Si(d, p)29Si reaction have been removed using data from a H-passivated Si surface. The channeling effect can be exploited to further reduce the nuclear reaction background yield from the substrate, resulting in a detection limit for oxygen of ∼ 3 × 1014 atoms cm−2 with a precision of ∼ 8%. The utility of these measurements is discussed with reference to film thickness calibrations for XPS data.