Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Step by step rare-earth catalyzed SiOx annealing and simultaneous formation of Europium- silicide by low coverage of Eu doped Gd2O3 nanoparticles

Selegård, Linnéa ; Skallberg, Andreas ; Zakharov, Alexei LU ; Abrikossova, Natalia and Uvdal, Kajsa (2021) In Surface Science 704.
Abstract

We report the formation of silicide by annealing of a SiOx surface, with low coverage of Eu doped Gd2O3 nanoparticles. The annealing temperature required for removal of native oxide from the Si substrate decreases with close to 200 °C in presence of the nanoparticles. X-ray photoemission electron microscopy, low-energy electron microscopy and mirror electron microscopy are used to monitor the silicide formation and SiOx removal. Fragmentation of the nanoparticles is observed, and the SiOx layer is gradually removed. Eu migrates to clean Si areas during the annealing process, while Gd is found in areas where oxide is still present. This annealing process is clearly facilitated in the... (More)

We report the formation of silicide by annealing of a SiOx surface, with low coverage of Eu doped Gd2O3 nanoparticles. The annealing temperature required for removal of native oxide from the Si substrate decreases with close to 200 °C in presence of the nanoparticles. X-ray photoemission electron microscopy, low-energy electron microscopy and mirror electron microscopy are used to monitor the silicide formation and SiOx removal. Fragmentation of the nanoparticles is observed, and the SiOx layer is gradually removed. Eu migrates to clean Si areas during the annealing process, while Gd is found in areas where oxide is still present. This annealing process is clearly facilitated in the presence of rare-earth based nanoparticles, where nanoparticles are suggested to function as reaction sites to catalyze the oxygen removal and simultaneously form Eu based silicide. Reduction of the annealing temperature of SiOx substrates is also observed in presence of pure Eu3+ and Gd3+ ions. Simultaneous oxygen removal and EuSi formation enable this new rare-earth catalyzed annealing and silicide formation to find applications both within optoelectronics and processing microelectronic industry.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Annealing, PEEM, PES, Rare-earth, Silicide, Silicon
in
Surface Science
volume
704
article number
121743
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85093646522
ISSN
0039-6028
DOI
10.1016/j.susc.2020.121743
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4c7df75c-480c-48de-9e68-90b4feb21af4
date added to LUP
2020-11-04 08:10:48
date last changed
2022-04-19 01:37:20
@article{4c7df75c-480c-48de-9e68-90b4feb21af4,
  abstract     = {{<p>We report the formation of silicide by annealing of a SiO<sub>x</sub> surface, with low coverage of Eu doped Gd<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> nanoparticles. The annealing temperature required for removal of native oxide from the Si substrate decreases with close to 200 °C in presence of the nanoparticles. X-ray photoemission electron microscopy, low-energy electron microscopy and mirror electron microscopy are used to monitor the silicide formation and SiO<sub>x</sub> removal. Fragmentation of the nanoparticles is observed, and the SiO<sub>x</sub> layer is gradually removed. Eu migrates to clean Si areas during the annealing process, while Gd is found in areas where oxide is still present. This annealing process is clearly facilitated in the presence of rare-earth based nanoparticles, where nanoparticles are suggested to function as reaction sites to catalyze the oxygen removal and simultaneously form Eu based silicide. Reduction of the annealing temperature of SiO<sub>x</sub> substrates is also observed in presence of pure Eu<sup>3+</sup> and Gd<sup>3+</sup> ions. Simultaneous oxygen removal and EuSi formation enable this new rare-earth catalyzed annealing and silicide formation to find applications both within optoelectronics and processing microelectronic industry.</p>}},
  author       = {{Selegård, Linnéa and Skallberg, Andreas and Zakharov, Alexei and Abrikossova, Natalia and Uvdal, Kajsa}},
  issn         = {{0039-6028}},
  keywords     = {{Annealing; PEEM; PES; Rare-earth; Silicide; Silicon}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Surface Science}},
  title        = {{Step by step rare-earth catalyzed SiOx annealing and simultaneous formation of Europium- silicide by low coverage of Eu doped Gd<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> nanoparticles}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.susc.2020.121743}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.susc.2020.121743}},
  volume       = {{704}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}