Abstract
Amorphous hydrogenated Si-N (a-SiNx:H) alloys were deposited by plasma immersion ion processing using a working pressure of 1.3 Pa of mixtures of SiH4 and N2. Films with N/Si ratios from 0.6 to 1.2 were obtained, as determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and elastic recoil detection analysis (ERD). A fixed total H content of 9 at.% was observed in all films. Chemical bonding was investigated by infrared, Raman and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopies. These techniques revealed a complex Si chemical environment that evolves towards that of Si3N4 for higher N/Si ratios. This evolution was correlated with the increase of film hardness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 219-222 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Thin Solid Films |
| Volume | 494 |
| Issue number | 1-2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 3 2006 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This work was supported by the DOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
Keywords
- Chemical bonding
- Silicon nitride
- X-ray photoelectron microscopy