In-situ ESR observation of dangling bond formation during very thin amorphous SiO2 growth on Si

The processes of formation of the interface dangling bond (P/sub b/ centers) during amorphous SiO/sub 2/ thin-film growth, by oxidation, on a clean Si[111] substrate was performed. Within 0.4 nm of the oxide layer, the number of P/sub b/ centers rapidly reached the same order of magnitude as that in thick a-SiO/sub 2/ films. These results indicate that the interface defects between Si and a-SiO/sub 2/ originate mainly from the short-range chemical bonding configurations, not from the long-range accumulation of structural misfits between the two materials.