Study of oxidation behaviour of Ruthenium thin film after thermal annealing in oxygen environment

In the present study, 20 nm thick Ru film ion beam sputtered on Si substrate is annealed at different temperatures ranging from 100 degrees C to 600 degrees C for 2 hours in an oxygen environment. The sample was characterized by grazing incidence x-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction techniques that revealed that there is no oxidation of Ru below 400 degrees C in 150 standard cubic centimetre O2 flow environment. At 400 degrees C, the oxidation of the Ru thin film starts and at 500 degrees C both Ru and RuO2 phases co-exists. At higher temperature (600 degrees C), the Ru thin film oxidized into RuO2 phase and an intermixed layer of Ru and Si at the film substrate interface is revealed.

Automated summary

In this study, a 20 nm thick Ru film sputtered on a Si substrate was annealed at different temperatures in an oxygen environment. The characterization using X-ray reflectivity and X-ray diffraction techniques revealed that Ru oxidation did not occur below 400 degrees C. At 400 degrees C, oxidation of the Ru film started, and at 500 degrees C, both Ru and RuO2 phases co-existed. At a higher temperature of 600 degrees C, the Ru film completely oxidized into the RuO2 phase and an intermixed layer of Ru and Si was observed at the film-substrate interface.