Probing deeper by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Journal Article · Mon Feb 03 04:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4864488· OSTI ID:22283204

Risterucci, P.; Martinez, E.; Delaye, V. ^[1]; Detlefs, B. ^[1]; Zegenhagen, J. ^[2]; Gaumer, C. ^[3]; Grenet, G. ^[4]; Tougaard, S. ^[5]

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1. CEA, LETI, MINATEC Campus, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 09 (France)
2. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, F-38043 Grenoble (France)
3. STMicroelectronics, 850 rue Jean Monnet, 38926 Crolles (France)
4. Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (INL), UMR CNRS 5270, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, 36, avenue Guy de Collongue 69 134 Ecully Cedex (France)
5. Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M (Denmark)

We report an hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy method combining high excitation energy (15 keV) and improved modelling of the core-level energy loss features. It provides depth distribution of deeply buried layers with very high sensitivity. We show that a conventional approach relying on intensities of the core-level peaks is unreliable due to intense plasmon losses. We reliably determine the depth distribution of 1 ML La in a high-κ/metal gate stack capped with 50 nm a-Si. The method extends the sensitivity of photoelectron spectroscopy to depths beyond 50 nm.

• OSTI ID: 22283204
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 104; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ENERGY LOSSES
EXCITATION
HARD X RADIATION
LANTHANUM
LAYERS
PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
PROBES
SENSITIVITY
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION