Investigations of bonding at an aluminium (III) oxide membrane in Si using ELNES separation

This chapter shows that the aluminium of the membrane can be found as aluminium (III) oxide and that the Si of the seed layer remains untouched by the oxygen. An Al₂O₃ membrane regulates layer growth in the aluminium induced layer exchange process that is used for seed layer growth on flat substrates for photovoltaic applications. The state of chemical bonding can be determined by means of the finger print method after energy loss near edge structure (ELNES) separation because each ionisation edge has its special structure influenced by the chemical environment of the probed atoms. When subtracting spectrum AI from Inti, the ELNES of the aluminium in the membrane can be found out. For identification of the oxidation state of the aluminium in the alumina membrane the spectrum AI must be subtracted from spectrum Inti.