Chemical characterization of SiO sub(2)/SiC interface after nitridation treatment

• Published in: Journal of electron spectroscopy and related phenomena 2011-04, Vol.184 (3-6), p.245-248
• Main Authors: Hu, Y F, Piao, H, Fronheiser, J, Matocha, K
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; fre ; ger
• Subjects: MOSFETs; Nitrous oxides; Oxides; Oxynitrides; Silicon; Silicon carbide; Silicon dioxide; Surface chemistry
• ISSN: 0368-2048
• DOI: 10.1016/j.elspec.2010.09.005

The nitridation of SiO sub(2)/SiC interfaces has shown great promise as a means of achieving high quality gate oxides for SiC MOSFET structures. It is of critical importance to characterize the interfacial nitrogen and understand the beneficial effects of nitridation treatment. In this work, the SiO sub(2)/SiC structure was prepared by direct oxidation in nitrous oxide (N sub(2)O), followed by a nitric oxide (NO) post-annealing. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) of Si L- and K-edges, recorded simultaneously in the surface sensitive total electron yield and the interface/bulk sensitive fluorescence yield, have been used to investigate the SiO sub(2)/SiC interface of a series of samples after the nitridation treatment. The results show that nitridation introduces nitrogen into the SiO sub(2)/SiC interface to form silicon nitride (Si[inline image]N bonds). Oxygen has also possibly been incorporated into SiO sub(2)/SiC interface in the oxynitride form. Great sensitivity of XAS in probing Si, SiC, SiO sub(2) and SiN sub(x) at different depths is also demonstrated.