Quantitative evaluation of surface damage on SiO2/Si specimen caused by electron beam irradiation

We have developed an accurate and easy method for the evaluation of electron beam damage of SiO2 thin films on Si in Auger microprobe analysis. The critical dose of SiO2 specimens can be determined from a curve fit with a proposed equation to the normalized measured metallic-like Si LVV peak intensities to that of a Si standard as a function of total electron dose. We found the inverse values of the resulting critical electron doses for 5% decomposition of SiO2 thin films (10 and 100 nm) on Si substrate are proportional to the electron stopping powers in the 3-15 keV energy range.