Surface structures of silicon nitride thin films on Si(111)

After exposing Si(111) to NH 3 at about 1075 K, a 10.2-Å surface periodic structure (the ‘8/3×8/3’ reconstruction) is observed in scanning tunneling microscopy images. When the nitridation temperature is above 1125 K, a silicon nitride film with a surface superstructure with a period of 30.7 Å and a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Thin solid films 2000-05, Vol.366 (1), p.121-128
Main Authors: Zhai, Guangjie, Yang, Jianshu, Cue, Nelson, Wang, Xue-sen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ceramic
Epitaxy
Low energy electron diffraction
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Silicon
Silicon nitride
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Summary:After exposing Si(111) to NH 3 at about 1075 K, a 10.2-Å surface periodic structure (the ‘8/3×8/3’ reconstruction) is observed in scanning tunneling microscopy images. When the nitridation temperature is above 1125 K, a silicon nitride film with a surface superstructure with a period of 30.7 Å and a minimum step height of 2.9 Å is obtained. Our systematic analyses suggest that the 30.7-Å superstructure is the 4×4 reconstruction on the Si 3N 4(0001) surface of the crystalline silicon nitride ( β-Si 3N 4) thin film formed on Si(111), while the 10.2-Å periodic structure is an incomplete nitridation phase on Si(111) surface. The surface structure has been found to be sensitive to the impurities in NH 3.
ISSN:0040-6090
1879-2731
DOI:10.1016/S0040-6090(00)00852-X