Microstructure of oxygen-rich silicon oxynitride

Abstract

A detailed study is carried out on four oxygen-rich silicon oxynitride samples as an as-deposited one and other three same ones annealed at 600 , 750 and 900 respectively by Infrared spectroscopy (IR) and X-photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is shown that the as-deposited sample consists of configurations as SiN x (x=1,2,3,4), O n Si 4-n -NH (n=0,1,2,3), Si-O 4 , Si-OH, N-OH, SiN-O and SiN=O. With the annealing temperature rising, other configurations diminish or disappear and thus the microstructure mainly consists of O 3 Si-NH and Si-O 4 . As the temperature steps higher to 900 , most of H is released, leading to the appearance of a great amount of O 3 SiN-with a N dangling bonding, thus a sharp increase in the inner stress, and the reappearance of SiN-O, SiN=O and Si1