In-Situ Studies of Si Oxidation by Transmission Electron Microscopy
20 March 1989
In a UHV Transmission Electron Microscope we have examined the interaction of O sub 2 with clean Si surfaces. With transmission electron diffraction we can study the structural damage to the Si(111) 7x7 reconstruction due to O sub 2 attack, following the kinematical diffraction analysis of Takayanagi et al.
Images taken with forbidden surface sensitive Bragg reflections reveal monatomic steps at the clean surface and buried Si/SiO sub 2 interface. The results provide new insight into the oxidation mechanism.