ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF TUNGSTEN-OXIDE LAYERS

The oxidation of polycrystalline tungsten ribbons has been followed by mass spectrometry (MS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and power loss measurement (thermal emissivity). AES and thermal emissivity as a function of coverage indicate a change in the growth mode at T(ox) = 1000 K. An attempt is made to correlate complex desorption spectra with thermal emissivity measurements at high temperature. A possible cause of the observed behaviour may be a change in the topography of the metal-oxide interface as evaporation proceeds.