Step by step rare-earth catalyzed SiOx annealing and simultaneous formation of Europium- silicide by low coverage of Eu doped Gd2O3 nanoparticles

We report the formation of silicide by annealing of a SiOx surface, with low coverage of Eu doped Gd2O3 nanoparticles. The annealing temperature required for removal of native oxide from the Si substrate decreases with close to 200 °C in presence of the nanoparticles. X-ray photoemission electron microscopy, low-energy electron microscopy and mirror electron microscopy are used to monitor the silicide formation and SiOx removal. Fragmentation of the nanoparticles is observed, and the SiOx layer is gradually removed. Eu migrates to clean Si areas during the annealing process, while Gd is found in areas where oxide is still present. This annealing process is clearly facilitated in the presence of rare-earth based nanoparticles, where nanoparticles are suggested to function as reaction sites to catalyze the oxygen removal and simultaneously form Eu based silicide. Reduction of the annealing temperature of SiOx substrates is also observed in presence of pure Eu3+ and Gd3+ ions. Simultaneous oxygen removal and EuSi formation enable this new rare-earth catalyzed annealing and silicide formation to find applications both within optoelectronics and processing microelectronic industry.