Oxidation Kinetics of Thin Films of Cobalt Investigated by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Physics and Astronomy
Date of Award
9-1-2026
Abstract
The oxidation of cobalt has been investigated. The proposed project seeks to determine the oxidation behavior at the cobalt thin films under two controlled processing conditions: in the vacuum oxidation conditions and in the quartz-tube furnace oxidation conditions. The electron- beam technique has been used to deposit thin films of cobalt on silicon substrates. The expo- sure time of these films to oxygen has been varied. The technique of X-ray photoelectron spec- troscopy has been utilized to determine the oxidation states of cobalt under these two processing conditions. The core level spectra of cobalt and oxygen have been used. It is observed that the vacuum oxidation conditions lead to the formation of CoO with some amount of elemental cobalt present in the sample. The quartz tube oxidation leads to a mixture of CoO and Co3O4. In this oxidation process, no presence of unoxidized cobalt has been detected. The curve fitting tech- nique has been used to estimate the amount of the different oxides. It is observed that the vari- ation in these oxides does not follow a linear trend. The results would give a better idea of the mechanistic explanation of the cobalt oxidation process and demonstrate how certain process- ing requirements result in differences in the structural and functional characteristics of the cobalt oxides
Advisor
A.R. Chourasia
Subject Categories
Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Physics
Recommended Citation
Sparsha, Md Samin Yeasar Zahan, "Oxidation Kinetics of Thin Films of Cobalt Investigated by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy" (2026). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 1385.
https://lair.etamu.edu/etd/1385
