Oxidation of vanadium with reactive oxygen plasma: A photoelectron spectroscopy study of the initial stages of the oxide growth process

We report on the oxidation of vanadium surface in a low-temperature oxygen plasma studied by in-situ photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, UPS). Pure vanadium foil was exposed to the oxygen plasma for different time intervals allowing to investigate early stages of the oxide–metal interface formation process and the oxide film growth. Upon increasing the exposure time to the oxygen plasma we identify two regimes with respect to the vanadium oxidation state: formation of 4+ state on the early stages of growth and in saturated regime vanadium was found to be predominantly in the 5+ oxidation state. Angle-resolved XPS was used to perform an in-depth distribution analysis of chemical composition in outermost layers of the oxide. We found that plasma oxidation produces a well-pronounced interface with a transition layer thickness of about 1.3 nm.