Roughness induced at Si(111) surfaces by high temperature heating

Abstract

The roughness of Si(111) surfaces induced by heating at temperatures between 900 and 1000°C is studied by differential reflectivity measurements. For the lowest temperatures, the stepped-roughness of the surface is smoothed out by annealing the surface, leading to an increase of reflectivity for light energies below 3 eV. For the highest temperatures, a larger scale roughness (of the order of several tens of nm) is formed at the surface. This roughness increases with temperature and induces essentially a scattering of light leading to a decrease of reflectivity in the UV range.