In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry: Application to Sb coverage measurement in the monolayer range on Si (111)

In this paper, we present an analysis of antinomy deposition on silicon in the range of 0.1 to 1 monolayer by in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry. After a careful choice of viewpoint material, ellipsometric measurements are found to be sensitive to small surface perturbations, especially with antimony. In fact, less than a 0.1 monolayer of antimony on silicon at room temperature is detectable. Moreover, a linear dependence of the ellipsometric signal on Sb coverage is observed in the monolayer range. Consequently, the signal versus time variation directly gives the Sb adsorption kinetics on silicon. The saturation to one monolayer of compact antimony on silicon surface is used in order to calibrate the spectra.