TY - JOUR
T1 - Structural study of thin amorphous SiO2 and Si3N4 films by the grazing incidence x-ray scattering (GIXS) method
AU - Sato, Shigeo
AU - Kakiuchi, Ryoji
AU - Yoshiya, Masato
AU - Matsubara, Eiichiro
AU - Saito, Masatoshi
AU - Waseda, Yoshio
AU - Takayama, Shinji
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, the Ministry of Education, Science and culture (No. 08405042 and 08455290). Dr. A. Takahashi (Sharp Ltd.) provided the amorphous Si3N4 film. We particularly thank the staff in the photon factory, National Laboratory for High-Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Professor M. Nomura and Dr. A. Koyama. One author (EM) thanks Professor I. Tanaka for his interest in this work and for helpful discussions.
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - A method has been presented for determining a local atomic structure in an amorphous thin film of sub-micron thickness grown on a substrate by the grazing incidence x-ray scattering (GIXS) method. The capability of this method was demonstrated by analyzing amorphous SiO2 and Si3N4 films 200 and 70 nm thick, respectively. A network structure in the amorphous SiO2 film consists of SiO4 tetrahedra connecting each other by oxygen atoms at their vertices. This resembles that in a bulk amorphous SiO2. The local ordering unit structure in the amorphous Si3N4 film was found to be a SiN4 tetrahedron. A significant feature in the present amorphous Si3N4 film is the presence of two types of Si-Si pairs in the near neighbor region while only one type is present in the α-Si3N4 crystal. This indicates that a part of the network structure formed by the SiN4 tetrahedra is quite different from that in its crystalline state. According to the coordination number of 3.8 for Si-N pairs, some nitrogen vacancies are quite likely involved in the film. Such nitrogen vacancies, then, are responsible for the modified network structure in the present amorphous Si3N4 film.
AB - A method has been presented for determining a local atomic structure in an amorphous thin film of sub-micron thickness grown on a substrate by the grazing incidence x-ray scattering (GIXS) method. The capability of this method was demonstrated by analyzing amorphous SiO2 and Si3N4 films 200 and 70 nm thick, respectively. A network structure in the amorphous SiO2 film consists of SiO4 tetrahedra connecting each other by oxygen atoms at their vertices. This resembles that in a bulk amorphous SiO2. The local ordering unit structure in the amorphous Si3N4 film was found to be a SiN4 tetrahedron. A significant feature in the present amorphous Si3N4 film is the presence of two types of Si-Si pairs in the near neighbor region while only one type is present in the α-Si3N4 crystal. This indicates that a part of the network structure formed by the SiN4 tetrahedra is quite different from that in its crystalline state. According to the coordination number of 3.8 for Si-N pairs, some nitrogen vacancies are quite likely involved in the film. Such nitrogen vacancies, then, are responsible for the modified network structure in the present amorphous Si3N4 film.
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U2 - 10.1515/HTMP.1999.18.1-2.99
DO - 10.1515/HTMP.1999.18.1-2.99
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0032760548
VL - 18
SP - 99
EP - 107
JO - High Temperature Materials and Processes
JF - High Temperature Materials and Processes
SN - 0334-6455
IS - 1-2
ER -