Investigation of oxidation process of ultrathin amorphous and/or nano-crystalline silicon films

A series experiments were conducted and reported here on how to employ quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) as a highly mass sensitive sensor to study a-Si film and Si nanocrystals oxidation under ambient oxygen. An experimental calibration procedure has been developed to prevent problems with QCM systems during routine study. With the help of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique, one can purposely deposit a thin layer of a heavy element as an insitu calibrant which can be analyzed by RBS quantitatively for QCM. The errors resulted from manufacture’s sensor, non-repeatable sensor mounting and handling, temperature cycling history from run to run and so on will be effectively eliminated. Our preliminary results indicate that the oxidation process of a-Si thin films has two stages. A fast oxidation associated with surface and near surface oxidation followed by a slow oxidation. The former is depends on the oxygen vapor pressure in the chamber and the later is oxygen diffusion controlled process.