Effect of microwave annealing on silicon dioxide/silicon carbide structures

The methods of atomic force microscopy and optical absorption spectroscopy are applied to study the effect of microwave treatment on the properties of SiO2/SiC structures obtained by rapid thermal annealing and conventional thermal oxidation in steam. From the variation of the sample optical density with total time of microwave treatment, it is concluded that the structures prepared by rapid thermal annealing are more stable against microwave radiation. It is shown that long-term microwave treatment flattens the oxide film surface at the nanolevel regardless of the method of silicon carbide oxidation. (C) 2003 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".