Suppression Of Ge-o And Ge-n Bonding At Ge-hfo_2 And Ge-tio_2 Interfaces By Deposition Onto Plasma-nitrided Passivated Ge Substrates

摘要

A study of changes in nano-scale morphology of thin films of nano-crystalline transition metal (TM) elemental oxides, HfO_2 and TiO_2, on plasma-nitrided Ge(100) substrates, and Si(100) substrates with ultra-thin (-0.8 nm) plasma-nitrided Si suboxide, SiO_x, x<2, or SiON interfacial layers is presented. Near edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (NEXAS) has been used to determine nano-scale morphology of these films by Jahn-Teller distortion removal of band-edge d-state degeneracies. These results identify a new and novel application for NEXAS based on the resonant character of the respective O K_1 and N K_1 edge absorptions. Their X-ray energy difference of > 150 eV is critical for this approach.