Determination of Pore Size Distributions in Nano-Porous Thin Films from Small Angle Scattering

摘要

Small angle neutron and x-ray scattering (SANS, SAXS) are powerful tools in determination of the pore size and content of nano-porous materials with low dielectric constants (low-k) that are being developed as interlevel dielectrics. Several models have been previously applied to fit the scattering data in order to extract information on the average pore and/or matrix size. A new method has been developed to provide information on the size distributions of the pore and matrix phases based on the "chord length distribution" introduced by Tchoubar and Mering. Examples are given of scattering from samples that have size distributions that are narrower and broader than the random distribution typical of scattering described by Debye, Anderson, and Brumberger. An example of fitting SANS data to a phase size distribution is given.