Effect of hydrogen dilution on the deposition of carbon-rich a-SiC:H films by the electron cyclotron resonance method

The deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) films from a mixture of silane, acetylene and hydrogen gas using the electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapour deposition (ECR-CVD) process is reported. The variation in the deposition and film characteristics such as the deposition rate, optical band gap and IR absorption as a function of the hydrogen dilution is investigated. The deposition rate increases to a maximum value of about 250 Å min-1 at a hydrogen dilution ratio of about 20 (hydrogen flow (sccm)/acetylene + silane flow (sccm)) and decreases in response to a further increase in the hydrogen dilution. There is no strong dependence of the optical band gap on the hydrogen dilution within the dilution range investigated (10-60) and the optical band gap calculated from the E04 method varied marginally from about 2.85 to 3.17 eV. The room temperature photoluminescence (PL) peak energy and intensity showed a prominent shift to a maximum value of about 2.17 eV corresponding to maximum PL intensity at a moderate hydrogen dilution of about 30. The PL intensity showed a strong dependence on the hydrogen dilution variation.

Local hydrogen reactions of H*2 in a-Si:H

Hydrogen rearrangements at the H*2 complex are used as a model of low energy, local transitions in the two-hydrogen density of states of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). These are used to account for the low activation energy motion of H observed by nuclear magnetic resonance, the low energy defect annealing of defects formed by bias stress in thin film transistors, and the elimination of hydrogen from the growth zone during the low temperature plasma deposition of a-Si:H. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Surface atomic properties of tetrahedral amorphous carbon

The surface energy and surface atomic structure of tetrahedral amorphous carbon has been calculated by an ab-initio method. The surface atoms are found to reconstruct into sp2 sites often bonded in graphitic rings. Placing the dangling bonds on adjacent surface atoms lower their energy by π-bonding and this is the source of the low surface energy. The even lower surface energy of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) is due to the hydrogenation of all broken surface bonds. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hydrogen content estimation of hydrogenated amorphous carbon by visible Raman spectroscopy

In the present study, we report the hydrogen content estimation of the hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films using visible Raman spectroscopy in a fast and nondestructive way. Hydrogenated diamondlike carbon films were deposited by the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, plasma beam source, and integrated distributed electron cyclotron resonance techniques. Methane and acetylene were used as source gases resulting in different hydrogen content and sp2/sp3 fraction. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopic ellipsometry (1.5-5 eV) as well as UV-Vis spectroscopy were provided with the optical band gap (Tauc gap). The sp2/sp3 fraction and the hydrogen content were independently estimated by electron energy loss spectroscopy and elastic recoil detection analysis-Rutherford back scattering, respectively. The Raman spectra that were acquired in the visible region using the 488 nm line shows the superposition of Raman features on a photoluminescence (PL) background. The direct relationship of the sp2 content and the optical band gap has been confirmed. The difference in the PL background for samples of the same optical band gap (sp2 content) and different hydrogen content was demonstrated and an empirical relationship between the visible Raman spectra PL background slope and the corresponding hydrogen content was extracted. © 2004 American Institute of Physics.