Screening energy variations in silicon, silicon dioxide, and silicides

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Abstract
Precise determinations by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of the Auger parameter for silicon, using a combination magnesium–gold x-ray source, disclose significant differences among values for crystalline, amorphous, and sputtered silicon. Detectable differences were found for silicon as an oxide for oxide films of different thickness. These differences appear to be due to the effect of disorder upon the polarizability of the atomic environment. The sharp change in polarizability across the silicon–silicon oxide interface would tend to broaden greatly the spectral lines from interface species; any observation of distinct lines from the interface requires three-dimensional aggregates in multiatom dimension, or an extremely ordered layered structure in the transition region. Silicon as a silicide has a parameter value more than 1 eV larger than that of crystalline silicon. Shifts in the values for the associated metal atoms are also indicated. The technique thus offers another way to examine physical and chemical states in surface layers.

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