THE USE OF THE AUGER PARAMETER IN THE CHARACTERIZATION OF SOME SILICON-COMPOUNDS

The study of silicon and silicon compounds is of great interest for their technological applications. In particular the determination of the surface stoichiometry of thin silicon compounds is of fundamental importance when these films are used as coatings, chemical barriers, passivation layers. The modified Auger parameter has been used to calculate the surface composition of SiOx and SiOxNy thin films comparing the results with those obtained using other methods. The good agreement between these data indicates the validity of the modified Auger parameter as an easy and fast method, available in all electron spectroscopy laboratory, to study the surface stoichiometry of Si-based compounds.