CRCU

Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2002, Vol. 18 ›› Issue (2): 124-129.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Ultra-thin Oxide Films on SiO2: An STM Study of Their Thermal Stability in the Presence of Au Deposit

Jun Wang1, C. E. J. Mitchell1,2, R. G. Egdell2, J. S. Foord1   

  1. 1. Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QZ, UK;
    2. Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QR, UK
  • Received:2002-01-20 Online:2002-04-24 Published:2011-08-04

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Abstract: The annealing of Au particles deposited onto the ultrathin layers of SiO2 on Si(111 ) has been studied in realtime with a high temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy. Annealing did not create significant changes to themorphology of the surface until the surface was heated up to more than 920 K when the gold particles started todisplay a preference for the step edge. Further heating caused the decomposition of the oxide layer with the for-mation of voids on the surface in the surface step edge area. Comparison between the gold assisted oxide decom-position and pure oxide decomposition indicates that the two decomposition routes proceed with different mecha-nisms.

Key words: Scanning tunnelling microscopy, Silicon oxide, Gold, Surface diffusion, Surface structure, Mor-phology, Roughness and topology, Oxidation, Decomposition