Nanostructure of thin metal films on silicon(111) investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy: Inelastic peak shape analysis

Abstract
We have investigated by x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) the nanostructure of thin metal films on Si(111) at room temperature and during annealing. We studied the growth and in‐depth distribution of Cu,Ag, Pt, and Au. These aspects are very difficult to determine by conventional surface analysis. Hence, we applied the Tougaard method for quantitative analysis of surface nanostructures by XPS. At room temperature we find island formation for Cu, Pt, and Au. For Ag, the analysis indicates either island formation or a Stranski–Krastanov growth mode. For temperatures ≂120 °C we find for Cu and Au strong diffusion deep into the bulk silicon, whereas for Ag and Pt, we find that the metal atoms agglomerate, i.e., the islands grow higher, while the coverage decreases. At higher annealing temperatures there are strong variations in the redistribution of the metal atoms for the different systems, but some silicon remains at the surfaces of all four systems.

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