An in situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of the initial stages of rf magnetron sputter deposition of indium tin oxide on p-type Si substrate

Abstract

The interface between indium tin oxide and p-type silicon is studied by in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This is done by performing XPS without breaking vacuum after deposition of ultrathin layers in sequences. Elemental tin and indium are shown to be present at the interface, both after 2 and 10 s of deposition. In addition, the silicon oxide layer at the interface is shown to be composed of mainly silicon suboxides rather than silicon dioxide.

Initial stages of ITO/Si interface formation: In situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements upon magnetron sputtering and atomistic modelling using density functional theory

“…31 Ex-situ XPS and TEM studies 41 on ITO films deposited on p-Si (100) substrates by dc magnetron sputtering revealed the presence of amorphous In clusters at the interface associated with oxygen deficiency in the ITO film. A recent in-situ XPS study 42 (similar to the one presented in this paper) of ITO grown on p-Si showed the presence of elemental In and Sn as well as Si sub-oxides.…”

“…The presence of a mixed interfacial oxide or the presence of SiO x (x < 2) has been also reported in previous studies. 31,42 To clarify the mechanism of SiO x and pure metallic In and Sn species formation at the ITO/Si interface, several atomistic models of ITO as well as ITO/Si interfaces are proposed and presented below.…”

“…In addition, the experiments and calculations in the present study clearly show that there is a tendency to form SiO x at the interface, which is also consistent with previously reported work. 31,35,36,42,61 V. CONCLUDING REMARKS Initial stages of ITO growth on a polished Si substrate upon magnetron sputtering were studied experimentally using in-situ XPS measurements. The presence of pure indium and tin as well as Si bonded to oxygen related peaks at the ITO/Si interface was detected confirming previous results from ex-situ and a recent in-situ study.…”

Questing and the application for silicon based ternary compound within ultra-thin layer of SIS intermediate region

“…Peaks of In2 and Sn2 belong to incomplete oxides of Indium and Tin accordingly. The O1 peaks corresponding to the dative bond of Indium and Tin oxides, while, the O2 peak indicates the existence of oxygen vacancy [14][15][16]. After 650 seconds, approaching the ITO interface, O3, In3, Sn3 peaks are beginning to emerge on the XPS spectral of In3d 5/2 , Sn3d 5/2 and O1s with the increase of etching depth.…”

“…are fitting peaks of single-crystal ITO film [14][15][16]. Among them, peaks of In1 and Sn1 are characteristic peaks of In 2 O 3 and SnO compounds correspondingly.…”