USE OF SI 2P X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON DIFFRACTION AS A TEST OF EPITAXIAL THIN-FILM GROWTH BY SI EVAPORATION ON SI(001)

Clean Si(001) surfaces are crystallographically characterized by x-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD). The anisotropic core level electron emission in the space, due to forward scattering mainly in the direction of the internuclear axes, is given by polar and azimuthal scans of the Si 2p core level intensities I(Si) infinity(theta) and I(Si) infinity(phi) in some particular high-symmetry space directions. As an ilustration we apply this technique to a study of the homoepitaxial growth of thin ( approximately 200 angstrom) evaporated silicon epilayers. Particular attention is paid to comparison of the epitaxy temperature dependence where the amorphous-crystalline transition occurs by varying either the substrate temperature T(s) at which the evaporation is done or the annealing temperature T(A) after a room temperature evaporation (solid phase epitaxy). We also suggest using the anisotropy factor deduced from the XPD patterns in oder to get information about the epitaxy quality,