I have 100nm SiO2 wafer and my particles had this oxide thickness. I wanted a cross section of my particles so I used focused ion beam. First I sputtered platinum and cut down the particles and wafer to have a cross section. But after this procedure, I noticed that I have 450nm of oxide on my wafer, rather 100nm. Does anyone have any explanation for why the oxide grew?
I haven't seen oxide thickness growth after FIB X-section, and can't imagine mechanism why it would be happening. Chances are, either oxide was much thicker then specified 100nm to begin with, or there is some other dielectric material that got deposited on the oxide at some step - more details on how the sample was made and a link to see the images could help figuring this out!
thank you for your reply.
I am quite sure that oxide thickness is 100nm.
i sputtered platinum before taking cross section images, thats all i did with FIB.
But; this sample Raman laser annealed. I tried to sinter my nanoparticles. and then to see whats happening below the surface i took cross section.
Do you think is it possible to oxide growing during laser treatment?
If annealing was done in the air them maybe oxide growth was possible. Maybe someone with more expertize in annealing then mine could chime in. Other way to find out would be to make a couple of new samples and X-section them before and after annealing. Another factor to consider is nanoparticles - could they oxidize, or act as catalyst for oxidation of Si, or undergo/initiate some chemical reaction that would create a layer of dielectric that looks similar to SiO2 in SEM?
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