Study of the stepwise oxidation and nitridation of Si(111) by electron stimulated desorption and Auger spectroscopy

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Abstract
Electron stimulated desorption (ESD) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) measurements are reported for the electron-activated stepwise oxidation and nitridation of the Si(111) surface. In ESD it is found that appreciable levels of surface hydrogen are present which can lead to hydroxyl formation upon oxidation. The hydroxyl-rich films are unstable in an electron beam, while surfaces oxidized with activated O2, where no OH is formed, are much more stable. On the OH-free oxide, ESD shows two chemically distinct O species, one thought to be SiO2 and the other either adsorbed O2 or a chemical intermediate. The Auger spectra for both oxide and nitride films, which show a continual change from Si to Si-compound nature, suggests that in the earliest stages of reaction the reacted film is made up mainly of low coordination intermediates which gradually evolve to the full compound as the coordination increases.

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