Surface and Interface Structure of Silicon Rich Oxide Films

Abstract

Si nanocrystals are promising materials which can be used for optical sensor, memory devices and future optoelectronics devices. In this work we study the morphology surface and interface of the silicon rich oxide (SRO) films with different nanocrystals (nc-Si) embedded in a thin SiO2 matrix (Silicon excess). Also the surface roughness after annealing was investigated by means of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). AFM images show different morphologies in the surface of the different films. The morphology changes could be associated to the gas flow ratio (Ro) and time of thermal treatment. All images demonstrated grain like structure with size nanometer, which was characterized by height distribution, average roughness, grain and pore mean diameter. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) reveals that a small layer formed in the surface of the SRO is SiO2 and the composition of the films ins in the volume varied with respect at the flow ratio, these data have allowed us to correlate the surface and interface structure with the composition of the SRO films