Chemical and phase compositions of silicon oxide films with nanocrystals prepared by carbon ion implantation

The chemical and phase compositions of silicon oxide films with self-assembled nanoclusters prepared by ion implantation of carbon into SiO (x) (x < 2) suboxide films with subsequent annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere have been investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in combination with depth profiling by ion sputtering. It has been found that the relative concentration of oxygen in the maximum of the distribution of implanted carbon atoms is decreased, whereas the relative concentration of silicon remains almost identical over the depth in the layer containing the implanted carbon. The in-depth distributions of carbon and silicon in different chemical states have been determined. In the regions adjacent to the layer with a maximum carbon content, the annealing results in the formation of silicon oxide layers, which are close in composition to SiO2 and contain silicon nanocrystals, whereas the implanted layer, in addition to the SiO2 phase, contains silicon oxide species Si2+ and Si3+ with stoichiometric formulas SiO and Si2O3, respectively. The film contains carbon in the form of SiC and elemental carbon phases. The lower limit of the average size of silicon nanoclusters has been estimated as similar to 2 nm. The photoluminescence spectra of the films have been interpreted using the obtained results.