Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Pore Size Distributions in Low-k Thin Films by X-Ray Reflectivity and Small Angle Neutron Scattering

Published

Author(s)

Barry J. Bauer, Hae-Jeong Lee, R C. Hedden, Da-Wei Liu, Wen-Li Wu

Abstract

New methods have been developed to measure of pore size distributions in 1 mm films deposited on silicon wafers. Specular x-ray reflectivity (SXR) and small angle neutron scattering (SANS) have been carried out on samples surrounded by a controlled partial pressure of toluene vapor. As the vapor pressure increases, increasingly larger pores become filled with toluene liquid and SXR is used to measure the amount adsorbed as a function of pressure. The Kelvin equation can be used to calculate the pore size distributions from the adsorption data. SANS is carried out in various mixtures of saturated toluene and toluene-d8 in air. The SANS signal goes through a minimum at a toluene/toluene?d8 ratio which is the match point at which time the wall material is matched by the toluene mixture. The wall density can be calculated from this composition directly, without assuming any particular morphology type. The match point mixture is then used to fill the pores at various partial pressures and SANS of these samples provides an independent measure of pore size distribution.
Citation
Pore Size Distributions in Low-k Thin Films by X-Ray Reflectivity and Small Angle Neutron Scattering

Keywords

porosimetry, porrosity, reflectivity, SANS, thin film, x-ray

Citation

Bauer, B. , Lee, H. , Hedden, R. , Liu, D. and Wu, W. (2008), Pore Size Distributions in Low-k Thin Films by X-Ray Reflectivity and Small Angle Neutron Scattering, Pore Size Distributions in Low-k Thin Films by X-Ray Reflectivity and Small Angle Neutron Scattering (Accessed November 6, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created October 16, 2008