Enhanced reduction of silicon oxide thin films on silicon under electron beam annealing

Electron beam annealing is an interesting alternative to other annealing methods as it can provide high temperature, rapid heating and cooling and low level of impurity as it operates under high vacuum environment. Furthermore swamping the materials with electrons can lead to dramatic changes in the component valence states with the mechanism involving oxido-reduction reactions. This is illustrated in the present case with the enhancement of the reduction of SiO2. Commercial thermally grown 100 and 400 nm SiO2 films on Si were annealed under three different environments: furnace annealing in open atmosphere with O2 flow, high vacuum furnace annealing and electron beam annealing. The reduction and oxidation of SiO2 films on Si are investigated using ion beam analysis. The validity of the measurement method was confirmed by measuring the oxidation rate through successive Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) measurements. The oxidation kinetics were observed to be in excellent agreement with literature values. At 1000 °C reduction of the SiO2 film is observed only with electron beam annealing. A model is proposed to explain the effect of the electron beam.