• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.611-614
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• 2007

The changes in the work $function({\Phi}_w)$ in the MgO protective layers after $plasma(Ar,\;H_2)$ treatment have been studied using ${\Upsilon}-focused$ ion beam $({\Upsilon}-FIB)$ system. The ${\Phi}_w$ was determined as follows: Ar-plasma $treatment({\Phi}_w=4.52eV)$, $H_2-plasma$ $treatment({\Phi}_w=5.65eV)$, and non-plasma $treatment({\Phi}_w=4.64eV)$. The results indicated that the H-plasma could not make any effective physical etching due to the small masses of hydrogen atoms and molecules while the hydration of H-plasma could grow some contaminating materials on the surface of MgO.