The evolution of bond structure in Ge33As12Se55 films upon thermal annealing

The evolution of bond structure of laser deposited Ge₃₃As₁₂Se₅₅ films under various processing conditions has been investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that a large number of Se-rich structures in the as-grown film may coalesce with As and Ge after annealing at high temperatures. In addition, both Ge and As 3d spectra show the presence of oxides. The oxygen distribution exponentially decays along the normal direction of the films regardless of different processing conditions. The critical thickness of the oxidized layer was extracted for the film annealed at various pressures and temperatures.