Deposition and characterization of silicon thin film on stainless steel by electron beam evaporation

•SiOx thin film was obtained by electron beam deposition of Si and subsequent annealing.•The annealed SiOx thin film electrode exhibits a long-term cycle stability.•The inter-layer between Si film and substrate enhances cyclability of the electrode. Silicon (Si) is a promising material as anode electrode because of its high theoretical capacity of 3579 mAh g−1 and low electrode potential (< 0.4 V vs. Li/Li+). In this paper, the Si thin film electrodes were fabricated by using electron beam evaporation on the stainless steel (SS) foil at room temperature. The structural and electrochemical characterization were investigated for the Si thin film electrodes before and after annealing at 700 ˚C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed that the annealed film layer consisted of SiOx containing about 30 at.% oxygen. The annealed Si thin film electrode resulted in improved electrochemical performance compared to as-deposited Si thin film electrode. The Si thin film electrode after annealing exhibited an initial discharge capacity of 2270 mAh g−1, and sustained excellent cycle stability with retention capacity about 95 % for 100 cycles at 0.5 C-rate. The improvement in cyclability for the annealed Si thin film electrode can be attributed to the enhanced adhesion of Si thin film to SS substrate through interdiffuion at the Si/SS interface owing to the post-annealing process.