XAS STUDY ON THE INTERMEDIATE SPECIES FORMED DURING THE SURFACE OXIDATION OF CRN FILMS

XAS was applied to the identification of the intermediate species form ed during the surface oxidation of CrN films. The N K-edge XAS spectra indicated formation of an intermediate species which gave a feature a t 401.4 eV. A high resolution XAS spectrum exhibited that the feature at 401.4 eV has the same vibration splitting as that of gaseous N-2. I t was also found that the species assigned to molecular N-2 occurred i n the interstitial position of the surface oxide layer in the oxidized films. The result implied the importance of high energy resolution XA S in the field of material science.