NEW ELECTROCHEMICAL-CELL FOR THE STUDY OF METALLIC SURFACES - CHARACTERIZATION OF SILICON ELECTROLYTE INTERFACE/

New electrochemical cell for the study of metallic surfaces: character ization of silicon/electrolyte interface. We describe a new and origin al electrochemical cell, coupled with a rigorous experimental process, allowing in situ electrical characterization of the silicon/electroly te interface. This device gives reproducible and reliable electrochemi cal measurements. Indeed, with this electrochemical cell, we have obta ined rest potential measurements and current/intensity curves, which r epresent two complementary parameters to describe electrode/electrolyt e behaviour The experimental method we have developed was quite suitab le to study the influence of light and surface impurities, because the rest potential is extremely sensitive to trace amounts of metallic el ements, at the ppb scale, or to dissolved oxygen in dilute hydrofluori c solutions. The small dimension of this cell, 10 cm(3), makes it very simple to operate, and is suitable to study the electrochemical respo nse of the silicon electrode to the presence of trace amounts of diver se contaminants at the scale of a few ppb.