An investigation into the use of an anodic reverse peak to study the growth of anodic oxides on (1 0 0) orientated silicon in tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH)

Under certain conditions, a ‘reverse’ anodic peak can be observed on the negative sweep of cyclic voltammograms (CVs) for p(1 0 0) and n(1 0 0) silicon in tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH). The effect of the carrier type, sweep rate, temperature, concentration and positive limit of the CV on the position of the ‘reverse’ peak was investigated. This reverse peak can be used to demonstrate the difference between the anodic oxides grown on p(1 0 0) and n(1 0 0) Si. More importantly, the effect of the positive limit of the CV on the position of the reverse peak was found to yield valuable information regarding the anodic oxide growth regimes for the two carrier types. Two new potentials are defined on the positive sweep of CVs for p(1 0 0) and n(1 0 0) Si in TMAH. These are the inner layer stabilisation potential (ILSP) for p(1 0 0) Si and the limiting oxide thickness potential (LOTP) for n(1 0 0) Si.