Oxygen pressure dependence of the initial oxidation on Si[001] surface studied by AES combined with

Si thermal oxidation has been and will be one of the key processes in fabrication of MOSFET devices designed with a scale of sub-micrometers. For the sake, SiO, layers as thin as sub-nanometers are demanded. Such an initial stage of Si thermal oxidation is strongly affected in growth and surface morphology by the 0, pressure and temperature.´) In this study, Auger electron spectroscopy combined with reflection high energy electron diflaction (RHEED-AES) was employed to observe simultaneously the time evolution of surface morphology and SiO, coverage as a function of 0, pressure during thermal oxidation on a Si(OO1)2x1 surface in order to clarify the surface reaction mechanism of Si initial oxidation.