Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of anatase titanium dioxide on Si: Modifying the interface by pre-oxidation

The formation of TiO2 films on clean and pre-oxidized Si(1 1 1) through chemical vapor deposition of titanium(IV) isopropoxide (TTIP) in ultra-high vacuum has been examined by synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and scanning tunneling microscopy. In both cases, TTIP deposition at 500 °C eventually results in an anatase TiO2 film with a carbon-free surface and the surface morphology of the anatase films is very similar. By using a novel way of combining photoemission and XAS data, it is demonstrated that the two situations have substantially different interfacial properties. Pre-oxidation of the surface at 500 °C passivates the surface so that the thickness of the amorphous TiSixOy interface layer decreases from 30–35 to 15–25 Å and eliminates the formation of interfacial carbon completely.