Chemical bonding state analysis of silicon carbide layers in Mo/SiC/Si multilayer mirrors by soft x-ray emission and absorption spectroscopy

Soft x-ray emission and absorption spectra in the C K region of Mo/SiC/Si multilayer mirrors were measured using highly brilliant synchrotron radiation to identify the chemical bonding states of the buried silicon carbide layers. Comparison with the C 2p density of state (DOS) spectra, calculated by discrete variational-X alpha molecular orbital calculations, of several SiC-based cluster models showed that the measured x-ray spectra approximately agreed with the calculated C 2p-DOS spectra of the c- and h-SiC-based SiCx models in which some silicon atoms were replaced by carbon atoms. The chemical bonding states of the silicon carbide layers in the Mo/SiC/Si multilayer mirrors were therefore estimated to be carbon-excessive silicon carbide. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)00542-8].