XPS study of non‐stoichiometric amorphous GeN alloys (a‐GeNx, 0≤x≤0.3)

In this work experimentally determined values of the chemical shift (ΔB) induced by nitrogen in Ge core levels of sub‐stoichiometric a‐GeN alloys are presented and discussed. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X‐ray excited Auger electron spectroscopy (XAES) were employed to study the behavior of the Ge 3d core levels and the Ge LMM transitions, respectively. The present data were compared to the core level shifts induced by other elements in the amorphous and crystalline Si and Ge networks. A linear relationship was found between chemical shifts in the core level binding energies and modified Auger parameters, when analyzed in terms of the charge transferred between impurity and host atoms’ bonding.