Chemical structures of native oxides formed during wet chemical treatments of silicon surfaces were investigated using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier Transformed Infrared. Attenuated Total Reflection (FT-IR-ATR). It was found that the amounts of Si-H bonds in native oxide and at native oxide/ silicon interface are negligibly small in the case of native oxides formed in H2SO4-H2O2 solution. Based on this discovery, it was found that native oxides can be characterized by the amount of Si-H bonds in the native oxide and the combination of various wet chemical treatments with the treatment in NH4OH-H2O2-H2O solution results in the drastic decrease in the amount of Si-H bonds in the native oxides.

The initial stages of SiO2/Si interface formation on a Si(111) surface were investigated at 300 in dry oxygen with a pressure of 133 Pa. It was found that the SiO2/Si interfacial transition layer is formed in three steps characterized by three different oxidation rates.