Abstract
On the basis of recent calculations we propose that fulfills the condition for spinodal decomposition. With this in mind we investigated the nanostructure of room temperature, radiofrequent magnetron plasma sputtered films over the entire composition range , applying x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and infrared analysis. We have found that the majority structure of the materials indeed resembles more or less a phase separated mixture, consisting of (small) -Si regions and (small) regions with tetrahedra at the interfaces between the two distinct regions. This structure presumably comes into existence by the operation of the process of spinodal decomposition in the deposition process. This does not seem to hold for sites, where also H (as a minority component in the film) is bonded. We propose that the nanostructure of hydrogenated silicon suboxides is different from that of the nonhydrogenated equivalent material.
1 More- Received 10 December 2003
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.69.245202
©2004 American Physical Society