Effect of argon sputtering on XPS depth-profiling results of Si/Nb/Si

Demchenko, Iraida N., Melikhov, Yevgen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9787-5238, Syryanyy, Yevgen, Zaytseva, Irina, Konstantynov, Pavlo and Chernyshova, Maryna 2018. Effect of argon sputtering on XPS depth-profiling results of Si/Nb/Si. Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena 224 , pp. 17-22. 10.1016/j.elspec.2017.09.009

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Abstract

Ultrathin Si/Nb/Si trilayer is an excellent example of a system for which dimensionality effects, together with other factors like type of a substrate material and growth method, influence strongly its superconducting properties. This study offers some important insights into experimental investigation of density of states of such a system with the aim to identify an electronic structure of the interface as a function of niobium layer thickness. For that, two Si/Nb/Si trilayers with 9.5 and 1.3 nm thick niobium layer buried in amorphous silicon were studied using high-resolution (HR) XPS depth-profile techniques. Strong influence of sputtering was observed, which resulted in severe intermixture of Si and Nb atoms. Nevertheless, a sharp top interface and metallic phase of niobium were detected for the thicker layer sample. On the contrary, a Nb-rich mixed alloy at top interface was observed for the thinner layer sample.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0368-2048
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	1 November 2017
Date of Acceptance:	21 September 2017
Last Modified:	06 Nov 2023 21:16
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/105799

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