Characterization of thin Chemical/Native Oxides on Si (100) by Auger and Angle-Resolved XPS

Abstract

Chemical/native oxides grown on Si(100) after several standard wet cleans are characterized by Angle-resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (ARXPS), and Auger Electron Spectroscopy using sputter depth profiles. Target Factor Analysis (TFA) was used to separate the Si LVV Auger peak into three components identified by their lineshapes and positions as Si, SiO2, and SiOx. Auger depth profiles were used to quantify the thickness of the oxides, the depth distribution, and amount of SiOx in the interface region. ARXPS was used to study the chemical state distribution in the native oxides as a function of depth. The depth distribution function from the Auger data was converted to an angle-resolved format for direct comparison to the angle-resolved XPS data. With this comparison, the SiOx lineshape is correlated to a 3:1 mixture of Si 3+ and Si 2+ oxidation states.