Application of TEM energy filtered measurements to the study of Ge redistribution in ion-implanted thin SiO2 films

Energy filtered TEM (EFTEM) has been applied to study ion beam syn-thesized Ge nanoclusters in 30nm SiO2 thin film thermally grown on Si(100). After thermal annealing the implanted Ge, as show the RBC measurements, was redistributed in to two spatial well separated layers - around the center of SiO2 film and near the SiO2/Si interface. The Ge in the middle of SiO2 film build the well detectable with a bright field TEM the cluster band. But the conventional TEM methods (bright, dark field and EDX line scans) are not able to determine exact Ge location related to the interface the closed cluster band. The energy filtered TEM investigations show that the interface Ge completely located in the Si substrate. The study enable conclusions about influence of the protection layer on Ge distribution in SiO2/Si.