Temperature effect on Young’s modulus of surface oxidized silicon nano-films

Abstract

Based on the semi-continuum model, the effect of temperature on Young’s modulus in the presence of oxide layer in silicon nano-films was studied theoretically by using the anharmonic Keating deformation potential, and the effect of oxide layer on Young’s modulus was also studied. The results show that Young’s modulus of the nano-film is inversely proportional to its temperature, which decreases with the increase of temperature. And with the number of oxide layer increasing, Young’s modulus of silicon nano-film increases. At the same thickness and layer numbers, Young’s modulus of the films with oxide layer is larger than that of pure silicon nano-films. The existence of oxide layer leads to the increase of Young’s modulus of the silicon nano-film.