Spectromicroscopy Studies of Silicon Nanowires Array Covered by Tin Oxide Layers

Abstract The composition and atomic and electronic structure of a silicon nanowire (SiNW) array coated with tin oxide are studied at the spectromicroscopic level. SiNWs are covered from top to down with a wide bandgap tin oxide layer using a metal–organic chemical vapor deposition technique. Results obtained via scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction showed that tin‐oxide nanocrystals, 20 nm in size, form a continuous and highly developed surface with a complex phase composition responsible for the observed electronic structure transformation. The “one spot” combination, containing a chemically sensitive morphology and spectroscopic data, is examined via photoemission electron microscopy in the X‐ray absorption near‐edge structure spectroscopy (XANES) mode. The observed spectromicroscopy results showed that the entire SiNW surface is covered with a tin(IV) oxide layer and traces of tin(II) oxide and metallic tin phases. The deviation from stoichiometric SnO₂ leads to the formation of the density of states sub‐band in the atop tin oxide layer bandgap close to the bottom of the SnO₂ conduction band. These observations open up the possibility of the precise surface electronic structures estimation using photo‐electron microscopy in XANES mode.