AES investigation of the chemical structure of silicon oxy-nitride films

Journal Article · Thu Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1979 · J. Vac. Sci. Technol.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1116/1.570013· OSTI ID:6316000

Madden, H H; Holloway, P H

The silicon-L/sub 2,3/VV, nitrogen-KVV, and oxygen-KVV Auger signals have been measured for a series of chemical-vapor-deposited silicon nitride films in which the oxygen content varied from 2 to 67 at. %. Uncorrected derivative spectra and background-corrected, loss-deconvoluted integral lines for silicon nitride films, for clean Si, and for SiO/sub 2/ were compared. The silicon spectra indicate that a high-energy Si-L/sub 2,3/VV feature from the nitride, previously identified with elementally bound Si, actually indicates an oxygen impurity. The N-KVV lineshape is found to be insensitive to oxygen incorporation while the three-peaked oxygen line becomes broader with increasing oxygen content. The valence-electron distribution width in the nitride is more than twice that of the distribution in elemental Si, but the width does not change appreciably with changing oxygen content. These Auger data indicate that oxygen incorporation into silicon nitride results in the formation of oxynitrides for < or approx. = 200 ppm of oxygen in the reactor. Beyond this concentration, silicon oxide is largely formed.

• Research Organization: Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
• OSTI ID: 6316000
• Journal Information: J. Vac. Sci. Technol.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Vac. Sci. Technol.; (United States) Vol. 16:2; ISSN JVSTA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400201* -- Chemical &amp; Physicochemical Properties
AUGER ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
CHEMICAL COATING
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
DEPOSITION
ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FILMS
LEPTONS
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN ADDITIONS
PNICTIDES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON NITRIDES
SPECTROSCOPY
SURFACE COATING
VALENCE