STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION EVOLUTION a-Si/ZrO2 AND a-SiOx/ZrO2 MULTILAYERED NANOPERIODICAL STRUCTURES UNDER HIGH TEMPERATURE ANNEAL

Abstract

With the use of scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction the morphology, composition and structure evolution of a-Si/ZrO2 and a-SiOx/ZrO2 multilayered nanoperiodical structures subjected to high temperature annealing were investigated. Each ZrO2 layers thickness was 2 nm while for a-Si or a-SiOx layers thickness was 8 nm with total number of layers 34 (a-SiO/ZrO2) and 43 (a-SiOx/ZrO2). Annealing was performed for 30 minutes at temperature of 1100 °С. Multilayered nanoperiodical structures have grainy relief with comparable morphology and size characteristics without noticeable dependence on layers interleaving sequence and their composition. 30 minutes anneal at 1100 °С for a-SiOx/ZrO2 multilayered nanoperiodical structures did not transform their surface. Under the same temperature for a-Si/ZrO2 multilayered nanoperiodical structures we observed noticeable changes in samples surface morphology as irregularities formation with 100 nm width and height that exceeds bilayer thickness. By X-ray diffraction technique the presence of thin ZrSi2 silicide layer is demonstrated in a-Si/ZrO2 structures as the result of silicon chemical interaction with zirconium dioxide under high temperature treatment of nanoperiodical multilayers.

Keywords

• multilayer nanoperiodal structures
• nanocrystals
• silicon
• silicon oxides
• phase composition
• X-ray diffraction
• atomic force microscopy
• scanning electron microscopy.