Research & Teaching Faculty

XPS STUDIES OF THE STABILITY OF A MIXED ZIRCONIUM-OXIDE AND SULFIDE THIN-FILM

TitleXPS STUDIES OF THE STABILITY OF A MIXED ZIRCONIUM-OXIDE AND SULFIDE THIN-FILM
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1995
AuthorsWong, PC, Li, YS, Zhou, MY, Mitchell, KAR
JournalSurface Review and Letters
Volume2
Pagination165-169
Date PublishedApr
Type of ArticleArticle
ISBN Number0218-625X
KeywordsOXYGEN, SURFACE
Abstract

A 25 Angstrom film formed by depositing zirconium (similar to 2 Angstrom min(-1)) onto gold foil in the presence of H2S (similar to 5 X 10(-8) mbar) and H2O (similar to 1 X 10(-9) mbar) has been studied by XPS. This film has an outer region composed of a mixed zirconium oxide/sulphide, while below there is metallic zirconium plus Zr/Au alloy in contact with gold. This film appears stable on heating to 400 degrees C under UHV insofar as the sulphide part does not change, although the oxide part increases apparently as a result of some reaction of metallic zirconium with ambient water. By contrast, when this preheated film at room temperature was treated with a hydrogen plasma, the sulphide component was completely removed and the whole film was converted to the ZrO2-like form with enhanced formation of OH groups. The hydrogen plasma treatment is therefore capable of desulphurising the mixed zirconium oxide/sulphide film.

URL<Go to ISI>://A1995RD59100005