Effects of atomic-scale surface morphology on carbon nanotube alignment on thermally oxidized silicon surface Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 103102 (2010); 10.1063/1.3354009 Effect of surface roughness on thermal conductivity of silicon nanowiresA report on the thermal oxidation of rough silicon surfaces as measured by spectroscopic immersion ellipsometry and atomic force microscopy ͑AFM͒ is given. It was found that, as the thickness of the thermally grown SiO 2 overlayer increases, the average radius of the crystalline silicon protrusions ͑roughness͒ at the interface decreases. A fractal analysis shows that a simpler surface results from oxidation. The frequency spectra of AFM images are concordant with the fractal analysis and shows that small features oxidize faster. This is in agreement with the predictions of the Kelvin equation that small features are more reactive.

Articles you may be interested inInvestigation of roughened silicon surfaces using fractal analysis. I. Twodimensional variation method Selective epitaxial growth with oxidepolycrystalline siliconoxide masks by rapid thermal processing chemical vapor deposition Fractal analysis was applied to images of rough silicon surfaces which were acquired with an atomic force microscope. Spectroscopic ellipsometry was also used to extract roughness information using an optical model and the Bruggeman effective-medium approximation. Different rough silicon surfaces were examined from three microelectronics processes; rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition, chemical etching, and thermal oxidation. The fractal nature of the surfaces and the correlation between fractal, optical, and topographic parameters were explored.