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Changes in Structure and Composition of Silicon Oxide Thin Films Induced by Ultraviolet Illumination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

E. G. Parada
Affiliation:
Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Vigo, Galicia, Spain
P. González
Affiliation:
Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Vigo, Galicia, Spain
B. León
Affiliation:
Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Vigo, Galicia, Spain
M. Pérez-Amor
Affiliation:
Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Vigo, Galicia, Spain
M. F. DA Silva
Affiliation:
Departamento de Física, Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear, Sacavém, Portugal
J. C. Soares
Affiliation:
Centro de Física Nuclear, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
A. Fernández
Affiliation:
Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales/CSIC Sevilla, Spain
A. R. González-Elipe
Affiliation:
Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales/CSIC Sevilla, Spain
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Abstract

The transformation of silicon oxide thin films at room-temperature by UV-photons provided by a Xe2* incoherent excimer lamp (λ = 172 nm, Δλ = 14 nm) was studied. Films were produced at low-temperature (T = 260 °C) by ArF laser-induced CVD (LCVD) in parallel configuration from a silane/nitrous oxide/argon gas mixture. The silicon oxide films were irradiated in several consecutive steps to follow-up the modifications with the illumination time. Rutherford backscattering (RBS), infrared (IR) and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopies, ellipsometry, and elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) were used to characterize the effects of the irradiation on the structure, composition, density, and hydrogen content.

Under the UV illumination the as-deposited film evolves from a suboxide film (SiO1.6) to a stoichiometric silicon dioxide (SiO2), and its originally strained structure changes towards a relaxed tetrahedral configuration. The UV irradiation is able to anneal at room temperature the silicon oxide films breaking the Si-H bonds and incorporating new SiO and hydroxyl groups in a relaxed network. The hydrogen does not effuse out, but remains in the film as molecular hydrogen and/or forming silanol or water groups.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

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