ELS Study of Amorphous Si(Substrate)-SiO2(Film Overlayer) System with Varying Primary Electron Energy

Abstract
Electron energy loss spectroscopy (ELS) study was performed on amorphous silicon (a-Si; ∼0.3 µm) oxidized thermally (oxide thickness ∼33 Å). With a proper incident electron energy (\gtrsim1 keV), a new loss peak of ∼6.5 eV independent of a-Si and SiO2 loss signals was observed. The loss peak was assigned as an interfacial plasmon excitation from discussion about the boundary condition of such a system. The excitation energy was different from that in a crystal Si-SiO2 interface due to the change in dielectric constant between the crystalline and amorphous substrates.

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