Influence of thermal annealing on the properties of sputtered Si rich silicon oxide films

摘要

Thin SiO_x films deposited by reactive r.f. magnetron sputtering of Si at partial pressure ratios R between oxygen and argon in the range 15%-0.03% are studied. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry prove enrichment with Si of the layers deposited at R < 0.5 %. Ellipsometric data give information about the refractive index and extinction coefficient of the films. Atomic Force Microscopy results show that for all samples high temperature annealing at 1000℃ leads to a decrease of the surface roughness.