Scanning Auger Microscopy Study of Heterogeneous Growth of SiC Film on Si(100) by Reaction with a C2H2 Beam

A Si(100) surface which was reacted with a well-collimated C2H2 beam was studied using scanning Auger electron microscopy (SAM) after storage in air for a long period of time. Formation of a SiC film was confirmed by the chemical shifts of the C KLL, Si LVV, and Si KLL peaks in the AES integral mode. Chemical maps of the surface were obtained using SAM. A sharp boundary of the region of SiC formed by the C2H2 beam irradiation was observed. The grains with bright tones in the SEM image observed at high magnification were identified as SiC crystals using SAM. The dark areas among the grains were the elemental Si regions. It is clear that the SiC film on the Si surface was not uniformly formed on a µm scale. This suggests that the SiC film grows via nuclear growth.