ABSTRACT
The structural properties of the system have been investigated by energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy. The technique has shown the presence of a significant amount of amorphous nanostructures, not detectable by using the conventional dark field transmission electron microscope (TEM) technique. The nanostructure mean size, including both the amorphous and the crystalline ones, and the crystalline fraction has been evaluated as a function of the annealing temperature. The structural characterization was performed by using a 200 kV energy filtered transmission electron microscope JEOL JEM 2010F with a Gatan Image Filter, consisting of a conventional TEM coupled with an electron energy loss spectrometer. Silicon nanocrystals embedded in silicon oxide have been produced by thermal annealing of SiOx, films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition.
