Stoichiometric and amorphous Er2O3 films were deposited on Si(001) substrates by radio frequency magnetron technique. Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurement showed that the refractive index of the Er2O3 film in wavelength region of 400–1000 nm was between 1.6–1.7. The reflectivity of the Er2O3 films decreased greatly with respect to that from the uncoated Si substrates. The absorption coefficient of the Er2O3 film indicated that it had an energy gap larger than 4.5 eV. The obtained characteristics indicated...
Synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy was used to study the formation process of Er2O3/Si（001） imerface and film during epitaxial growth on Si. A shift in the O core-level binding energy was found accompanied by a shift in the Er2O3 valence band maximum. This shift depended on the oxide layer thickness and interfacial structure. An interfacial layer was observed at the initial growth of Er2O3 film on Si, which was supposed to be attributed to the effect of Er atom catalytic oxidation effect.
