Spectroscopy infrared characterization of annealed silicon rich oxide films

Silicon rich oxide (SRO) has optical and electric properties that can be used in silicon optoelectronics devices, especially photoluminescence. The study of the SRO optical and structural characteristics would provide information on the mechanism of radiation. In this paper, the infrared (IR) absorption spectra and refractive index of silicon rich oxide films annealed during different times have been obtained. The refractive index of SRO films increases as the excess of silicon increases and also with the thermal treatments time. The IR absorption peaks are associated with the rocking, bending and stretching modes of the Si-O-Si bounds. These peaks of absorption and the refractive index vary with the different processing steps, a change in the silicon and oxygen composition with the reactive gases relation (Ro) used during the deposition and thermal treatments time were observed. Also, comparison with previous data, or with thermal oxide, was done when it was possible.