AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Scanning Probe Microscopy Focus Topic Wednesday Sessions
       Session SP+SS+TF-WeM

Paper SP+SS+TF-WeM13
Non-Destructive Electrical Depth Profiling across Nanometric SiO2 Layers

Wednesday, November 9, 2016, 12:00 pm, Room 104A

Session: Probing Electronic Properties
Presenter: Hagai Cohen, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Authors: H. Cohen, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
A. Givon, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Correspondent: Click to Email
The access to sub-nm scale depth information in thin dielectric layers, considering both the compositional and the electrical sub-surface characteristics, is challenging. A remarkable answer may be provided by CREM (chemically resolved electrical measurements), a technique based on x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). CREM exploits the chemical contrast within a given structure to gain rich electrical information, or alternatively, apply electrical tests to gain improved structural&compositional analyses. Yet, for compositionally uniform domains, CREM becomes rather insensitive to the fine profiling details. Here, we show that this principal limitation can be overcome and the CREM resolution be improved significantly. Applied to nanometric silica layers, we reveal hidden impurity concentration profiles and further correlate them with the depth-dependent dielectric quality. Based on this leap improvement in resolution and sensitivity, our advanced CREM analysis promises diverse applications in device contact-free electrical studies.