SiO 1 5 /SiO 0 3 /SiO 1 5 sandwich structure was synthesized by reactive magnetron sputtering to achieve various densities of Si nanocrystals and different concentration of Si suboxides. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is employed for depth profiling of the chemical structure and charging effect of the sandwich structure. The Si 2p core-levels are found to strongly shift to higher binding energy. The shift can be ascribed to the photoemission-induced charging effect. The opposite trend of the charging effect to the concentration of Si suboxides (Si 2 O, SiO and Si 2 O 3 indicates that the defects are not responsible for the charge mechanism. The Si nanocrystals concentration dependent charging effect suggests that the nc-Si plays a dominant role for the charge trapping in such films.
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