Impact of nitrogen incorporation in ultrathin SiO2 on the chemical and electronic structures of the SiO2/Si[100] interface

We have studied the chemical modification of ultrathin SiO/sub 2/ thermally-grown on Si[100], which is caused by annealing in NH/sub 3/ ambient, by using infrared attenuated total reflection (IR-ATR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and total photoelectron yield spectroscopy (PYS). We find that nitrogen incorporation with a few atomic percent in thermally-grown SiO/sub 2/ is very effective in reducing the built-in compressive stress near the SiO/sub 2//Si[100] interface.