Wk. Choi et al., X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON-SPECTROSCOPY STUDY OF RAPID THERMAL ANNEALED SILICON-SILICON OXIDE SYSTEMS, Journal of applied physics, 81(11), 1997, pp. 7386-7391
We present the results of an investigation on the effects of rapid the
rmal annealing (RTA) temperature (T-p) and time (t(p)) on the structur
al and electrical properties of silicon-silicon oxide systems. X-ray p
hotoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to provide information on the
oxide composition of the annealed oxide sample. We found that a highe
r T-p and/or a longer t(p) will increase the percentage of SiO2 in the
annealed oxide layer and thus improve the oxide quality. We also disc
overed that increasing T-p and/or t(p) will result in a thicker oxide
layer. The suboxide density calculation based on the XPS results indic
ates that the Si-SiO2 interface of our RTA samples is not abrupt. We h
ave used the conclusions obtained from the XPS study to provide satisf
actory explanations for the different current versus voltage character
istics exhibited by our tunnel diodes. (C) 1997 American Institute of
Physics.