Aleksander M. Wrobel

The effect of substrate temperature (T_S) on the growth rate, chemical structure, surface morphology, density, refractive index and photoluminescence (PL) of a‐SiC:H films is reported. The increase in T_S from 30°C to 400°C causes the elimination of organic moieties from the film and the formation of Si‐carbidic network structure. The films produced at high T_S are morphologically homogeneous, dense, and hard materials of high refractive index and extremely low PL intensity.

SiCN films were produced by remote microwave hydrogen plasma CVD (RP‐CVD) from tris(dimethylamino)silane precursor using different substrate temperature in the range T_S=30‐400°C. The effect of T_S on the rate of RP‐CVD, chemical structure, surface morphology, density, and photoluminescence (PL) of resulting films is reported. The increase in T_S causes the formation of silicon carbonitride network, marked densification and smoothening of film surface, as well as shift of PL peak position.

Amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbide (a‐SiC:H) films are produced by remote microwave hydrogen plasma (RHP)CVD using triethylsilane (TrES) as the single‐source precursor. The reactivity of particular bonds of the precursor in the activation step is examined using tetraethylsilane as a model compound for the RHP‐CVD experiments. The susceptibility of a TrES precursor towards film formation is characterized by determining the yield of RHP‐CVD and comparing it with that of the trimethylsilane precursor. The effect of substrate temperature (T_s) on the rate of the RHP‐CVD process, chemical composition, and chemical structure of the resulting a‐SiC:H films is reported. The substrate temperature dependence of the film growth rate implies that film growth is independent of the temperature and RHP‐CVD is a mass transport‐limited process. The examination of the a‐SiC:H films, performed by means of X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA), and Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy (FTIR), reveals that the increase in the substrate temperature from 30 °C to 400 °C causes the elimination of organic moieties from the film and the formation of a Si‐carbidic network structure. On the basis of the results of the structural study, the chemistry involved in film formation is proposed.

1,3-bis(dimethylsilyl)-2,2,4,4-tetrametyhylcyclodisilazane was used as a single-source precursor for the production of silicon carbonitride (SiCN) thin-film coatings by remote microwave hydrogen plasma chemical vapor deposition (RP-CVD). The effect of the substrate temperature (TS)(TS) on the rate and yield of the RP-CVD process, chemical composition, chemical structure, and surface morphology of the resulting film is reported. The temperature dependencies of the thickness-based growth rate and growth yield of the film imply that for the low substrate temperature range (35⩽TS<200°C)(35⩽TS(200⩽TS⩽400°C)(200⩽TS⩽400°C) , film growth is independent of the temperature and RP-CVD is a mass-transport limited process. The increase of the substrate temperature from 35to400°C35to400°C causes the elimination of organic moieties from the film and the formation of the Si–C network, which contains incorporated N-silyl-substituted cyclodisilazane molecular skeletons of the precursor linked with the network via the Si–C bonds. The microscopic examination revealed that the films are defect-free materials of excellent morphological homogeneity and exhibit small surface roughness, which vary in a narrow range of values. The SiCN films deposited at various substrate temperatures were characterized in terms of their density, adhesion to a substrate, hardness, elastic modulus, and friction coefficient. The film properties are strongly influenced by the compositional and structural parameters represented, respectively, by the contents of nitrogen and Si–C bonds; the latter described by the relative integrated intensity of the Si–C infrared band. The reasonable relationships between the film properties and the mentioned compositional and structural parameters have been determined.